Mass Effect

Mass Effect

49 Achievements

1,200

62-84h

Xbox 360
Xbox One
Xbox Series
Log in or Register to track Mass Effect achievements progress.
AI Hacking Specialist

AI Hacking Specialist

Use AI Hacking 75 times

15

How to unlock the AI Hacking Specialist achievement in Mass Effect - Definitive Guide

Just start an engineer and make sure you have AI hacking and Neural shock before you attack Fist in Chora's Den. Then save before you enter his room and cast hacking on a turret and neural shock on fist, then load the save you just made. Rinse, Repeat.
148
20

20 Apr 2009 22:42

20 Comments
I found this by far the fastest way to get both achievements.
0
0
By Dark Cell NZ on 08 May 2009 08:29
I agree.. especially saves the time of leveling up hacking.
0
0
By VoodooN88 on 22 May 2010 20:30
Nice solution. Don't understand why you got 8 negative votes cuz this method worked just fine and saved me lots of time ;)
0
0
By The Fury I84I on 07 Jun 2010 19:15
negatives are usually formed for serious amount of butthurt,

Great Solution, fast and easy the way i like my achievements.
0
0
By TouchMyMinki on 11 Jul 2010 03:09
Worked great! Saved me alot of time.
0
0
By AceOfAces81 on 18 Jul 2010 19:10
IMPORTANT NOTE:

Because you are not saving you are relying on the game's memory to do this--if you turn the console off before getting the achievement you will have to start all over at zero uses if you've been using this method.
0
0
By BenJScar on 15 Nov 2010 04:31
I'm assuming you could follow this same process on any organic enemy/hacking target? I only had neural unlocked by Fist, but I guess the next area I find with a turret I can just save prior and repeat.
0
0
By terrett101 on 15 Dec 2010 04:58
Yes this works everywhere, Fist is just the earliest in the game you can get both achievements.
0
0
By Armistan Banes on 15 Dec 2010 05:00
great solution, tx you
0
0
By lukablack on 20 Feb 2011 16:03
Awesome....saved alot of time using your method.
0
0
By Solario32 on 31 Oct 2011 16:29
So, how long does it take to get these two achievements?
0
0
By Underworld Pope on 18 Sep 2013 03:45
Nice solution :D
0
0
By Exalted Entity on 17 Aug 2014 15:50
Thanks for this solution! Helped a lot :D
0
0
By Paky94 on 25 Feb 2015 21:40
I don’t know why everyone keeps saying your personal character has to be the one that uses these skills. I have only ever used my team and their skills and I’m getting the achievements easily. All on my first okay through. Please do your research a little more people, don’t make it harder then it needs to.
0
0
By YoshiMaster666 on 22 May 2021 09:40
@YoshiMaster666 did you get the achievement in the legendary edition or in the original? Because while you can do it using your teammates in the legendary edition, it doesn't work that way in the original.
0
0
By Jarclan on 22 May 2021 18:04
@Jarclan it absolutely does work that way in the original. This is coming from someone who 100%ed all three originals and has literally never played a sentinel, yet still got 100% including neural shock specialist.
0
0
By Sigma Eight on 31 Dec 2022 20:44
Just so no one suffers the way I did. It does NOT work in the originals
0
0
By DUSTAGNOR on 26 Sep 2023 07:03
This is a great way to obtain the achievement, however it should be noted that one problem in this solution is that if you just blaze through the opening of the game you will probably not be level 6 (required for AI Hacking) at the time when you storm Fist's room. I had to do numerous assignments in the Citadel before going to the Med Clinic to make sure I'm level 6 before getting to Fist. Here's what I did (not sure if all this is necessary since you will get some xp from the fight in Chora's Den, but I just wanted to be sure.

Missions:
Prologue: Find the Beacon (duh)

Assignments:
Citadel: Signal Tracking
Citadel: Xeltan Convinced
Citadel: Asari Consort
Citadel: Presidium Prophet

also scanned some keepers and examined objects for extra XP.
0
0
By ananasnaama on 08 Aug 2010 19:20
It took me about 36 minutes to do both of them as per this solution. It should have taken around 30, though. The extra 6 minutes were due to the fact that Fist likes to hide behind walls and screw up your Neural Shock, and also because of power wheel ineptitude for the first 10 cycles or so.
0
0
By roxy749 on 28 Sep 2013 06:01
While the Fist battle option works, I wasn't a fan of re-loading the game 75 times and when I launched a new game with the Engineer class I didn't have the points to spec out my character for the AI Hacking option.

So, while the achievement works on turret's, it also works on Geth Trooper and Get Sniper enemies at a low spec'd AI Hacking ability. Got this idea from truetrophies.com.

Start a new game with Engineer class and finish up all the squadmate stuff on the Citidel at the beginning of the game where you get Garrus, Wrex, and Tali. Once you become Spectre and gain control over your ship, head over to Konossos to kick off the Liara squadmate mission.

Drive the Mako to the point of where you have to start on foot and very soon you'll come across a Geth Sniper in a tower that has no way of leaving, so he can't attack you directly. Position your squadmates far away so they don't try to kill the Geth Sniper.

There are several spots that make it very easy to hide in-and-out of cover from the sniper and only appear for a few seconds to move in-and-out of view in order to use the AI Hacking ability on him and go back into cover again. You have to wait for the cooldown period, but all I did was put a timer on my watch and just come in-and-out of cover, hack the sniper, rinse and repeat.

Or, just redo a mission over and over that has a lot of Geth Trooper's in it, but I find this method less tedious and annoying than the re-loading of the game 75 times. Worked for me.
0
0
By RegretfulCoffee on 08 Mar 2020 22:50
View all 20 comments Show less comments
I found an easier way but it only works if you have the Pinnacle Station DLC. You will have access right away to the Survival missions but you need to play the Tropical course because the other course has Pirates instead of Geth.

They will have an infinite spawn it all depends on your survival, just cast it and wait for it to come back killing Geth in the process. It really helps to have your Engineer maxed and AI Hacking maxed too this only took me about 23 minutes on a 1 run through survival mission.

Hope this helps :)
93
7

15 Jan 2010 01:27

16 Comments
HUH?
0
0
By redraider104 on 06 May 2010 02:03
Hi. Do you have to get all 75 in one go or can you play over and over again if you keep dying.
0
0
By SKIN RIP on 01 Aug 2010 21:39
Been playing Pinnacle Station DLC for about 3 hours now getting 4-5 hacks per round rinse and repeat and nothing :( negative for me
0
0
By SKIN RIP on 02 Aug 2010 21:22
I did it all in one go make sure to try and survive the whole time
0
0
By Ueki420 on 02 Aug 2010 21:27
I stand to be corrected....hacked 1 geth on a mission and it popped so the other 74 must have been on Pinnacle. changed to positive :)
0
0
By SKIN RIP on 11 Aug 2010 19:19
Confirmed, this still works. Took me about 2 hours. Good guide!
0
0
By Spectrix on 09 Sep 2010 17:02
Thanks! really wondering who voted negative..probably because its DLC
0
0
By Ueki420 on 13 Apr 2011 21:02
does anyone know if it works on hunt on subterranean too because it does have geth? I been trying but I might just be wasting my time....
0
0
By DePas2422 on 03 May 2011 06:20
it works but it really does take some time if you didn't use the move before
0
0
By Ueki420 on 03 May 2011 06:58
ya it took me about 3 hours I just finished now. I kept going back and forth between survival and hunt so it didnt get to long lol
0
0
By DePas2422 on 03 May 2011 07:11
do you have to hit a target with it? cuz sometimes i cast it will miss so idont know if those count and my other question is does the hack have to be sucessful as in you take control of the geth unit because i dont have it all the way level and it doesnt hack destroyers or juggernaughts but it still hits them
0
0
By Napalm Carlson on 09 May 2012 02:11
yes the hack must be successful in order for it to count.
0
0
By Ueki420 on 09 May 2012 02:23
Slowest of the Engineer achievements by far. Good suggestion though, quicker than hunting for geth missions.
0
0
By Xeno Smoke on 01 Jun 2013 23:01
"yes the hack must be successful in order for it to count." F, why am I reading this now. Ahh my god hours wasted spamming that power.
0
0
By Spybreaker on 11 Feb 2014 07:25
Best solution.
0
0
By Billargh on 06 Sep 2014 22:44
Thanks! Appreciate that lol
0
0
By Ueki420 on 07 Sep 2014 02:32
View all 16 comments Show less comments
There's a specific point on Feros where all you need to do is cast AI Hacking, recharge and rinse/repeat.

Once you first talk to the colony, you will be required to 'clear the geth in the stair case (up in the area where the elevator to the prothean skyway is located).

In the end room where once you finish you'll see the geth ship fly away, do not kill any of the Geth Snipers located. Once the only enemies left are the sniper/snipers, all you need to do is take cover on a small block located on the floor and cast your hack, no moving around, no saving/loading the game after each time.

Obviously your skill needs to be substantial enough to hack the geth, but by the time you reach Feros, im sure you'll have the ability to do that.
56
8

04 Nov 2008 17:46

13 Comments
@knight0fkh0nshu:

Yes, you can do it to the same creature.
0
0
By Yemeth on 13 Aug 2009 19:36
What Class do you have to be?
0
0
By SecondHALONICK on 16 Mar 2009 20:44
Engineer
0
0
By dropK1CK ninJA on 24 Mar 2009 10:34
Does it have to display "Hacked" on the HUD for it to register as being used? I've noticed that for some things it does this and others it does not. Anything specific I need to use it on other than Geth?
0
0
By TheIcemanCometh on 14 Jul 2009 11:13
Yes, it needs to display 'Hacked'. You can use it on turrets too, but you can just get your full 75 on geth.
0
0
By Yemeth on 16 Jul 2009 11:10
Can you do it on the same creature over and over without reloading and it count?
0
0
By knight0fkh0nshu on 24 Jul 2009 00:57
I did as suggested and kept hacking the Geth Sniper on Feros. I would add it that it goes much faster if you level up your Engineer stat (for reduced cool downs) and also use an omnitool that reduces Tech cool downs. While it's not required, it made the task way faster.
0
0
By StaticDynamite on 24 Oct 2009 22:26
just remember the higher your skill in hacking the more thing you can hack
0
0
By Artiaura on 24 Feb 2010 18:37
My question is, do you have to do all these achievements yourself. Meaning hack / biostasis / lift / medi-gel , or any other achievments using a certain skill X amount of times do YOU SHEPARD have to do them or does your teamates count. Like can I hack 50 times and have turian or whoever hack 25 and get the acheivment?
0
0
By MAGNUS 7000 on 02 Apr 2010 21:13
@MAGNUS 7000: Shepard has to cast each of those every single time. If you were to hack 50 times, then make Garrus hack 25 times, you would not get the achievement.
0
0
By Dathaen on 23 Apr 2010 21:37
best solution if you have missed the Fist one
0
0
By LepraSaun on 21 Jan 2011 02:44
between this original solution and doing cyberknight's method (hacked the sapper instead of the sniper), this overall plan is FTW!
0
0
By ReliantGung ho on 19 Apr 2014 01:08
I did this on the way *in* to Feros; there was a Sniper and a Stalker on the very first stairway (the guy at the spacedock tells you to go up the stairs, and then the Geth attack). The Stalker sat on the block right next to the first flight of stairs. I just ran halfway up that first flight, cast Hack, ran down, counted to 30, and repeated. (Difficulty was set to Casual, which may explain why the Stalker would sit there even after he was no longer hacked but while I was waiting to recharge.) But same basic concept as YEME7H's guide.

Something I found important, especially on Casual: to keep your teammates from killing them, send them away by looking at a far away place on the ground and pushing up on the D-pad. This tells them to move to where you're pointing and hold position. (I actually had my team holding point on the spacedock when I walked into the stairs.)
0
0
By CyberKnight on 20 Sep 2009 07:11
View all 13 comments Show less comments
Also on Feros is another location where you can hack over and over again.

At the ExoGeni facility, wait until you reach the first claw of the geth ship. You'll enter and see two geth working down below. I was able to hack, recharge, and hack some more without the geth ever coming up the stairs after me.
38
9

17 Feb 2009 07:37

Feros has been mentioned atleast twice, but you don't have to get as far into the mission as some say.
I managed to get this achievement by saving immidiately after talking to Fai Dan, then casting it on one of the two Geth snipers approaching from the hallway. (My AI Hacking level was 4.) Then it was just a matter of loading and saving for about 20 minutes.
It also simplifies things if you, upon arriving at Feros, map AI Hacking to the RB button.

Final things: No, it doesn't work to cast it on the Mako, if you were wondering. And, it doesn't matter how long you wait after casting. I loaded instantly after seeing a Geth's status displayed as 'Hacked', and it (obviously) worked for me.
32
6
To further add to the solutions above:

One thing I found is that if you go to Luna for the Rogue VI Assignment, you can hack every single one of the drones in the 1st and 2nd bases. Just keep your team mates in the first room of the base, out of the way of the door, and then slowly walk in, hack the first visible Drone and back-up down the hall. Using this method, you can hack each drone one at a time and the other drones kill it almost instantly. Sometimes if you get lucky, the last drone left in the room sill stay put for a while, allowing you to constantly re-hack it. I managed to do this 8 times before it moved and chased me down.
The key is not to alert ALL of the drones in the room (which happens if you run towards the middle). This way only 2 or 3 see you and the entire room of drones won't chase you.
This only works for the first two bases that you enter, because on the third you have to shoot through the energy barriers, which alerts all the drones, and they all rush you.
I believe there are 10 drones in each base, so if you can do this correctly, thats at least 20 hacks, plus it kills them at the same time, getting you further to completing the assignment. Win-win, really. If you are lucky to get the drone that stands still, thats a few more hacks you can add to the tally.

Though this method doesn't grant you the infinite hacks that the other solutions offer, this method is a tad less boring and at the same time allows you to progress in the Assignment.

--Another note: All AI hacks (and all other power uses) are cumulative, so for example you hack 10 drones and die, those 10 hacks still count towards the total for the Achievement.
30
4

09 Oct 2010 21:41

Drive the Mako to the rogue VI moonbase protected by 6 Alliance heavy turrets. Get out and hack the turrets. Eventually,there will be only one turret left. Seek cover at the base of that turret so that it can't keep shooting you. Pop out and hack the turret. The hack wears off, so pop out and hack it again . Keep doing it until you have the achievement. Worked for me!

NOTE: MugenKairo warns that "you need your AI hacking talent maxed out to Master AI Hacking."
28
5

05 Nov 2010 14:28

if you dont want to reload, a great place to do this is on therum (liara's dig site). drive a little bit until you get to the wall that forces you to abandon the mako. go up the hill and clear out 3-4 geth. switch your team to shotguns and direct them to someplace behind you. advance forward up a hill and down into an area with storage containers, a metal wall structure, and a sniper tower. clear out the geth in this area, but leave the sniper alone. double check to make sure your team hasnt returned and started engaging the sniper (this is the most annoying part).

now get into a covered position (back to the wall) at the edge of the wall nearest the sniper. position the reticule so that it is focused on the sniper. map AI hacking and all you have to do is press RB and your character will exit cover, hack and return to cover. easy peasy. no need to reload a save. no need to even pay attention, as long as you keep hitting that RB.

by the time i got here, i was at level 13 with advanced AI hacking, but i believe this can be done with basic hacking as it is just a geth sniper.

also, at the beginning of this level, if you get out of the mako and target it, you can knock out all of the other engineer abilities in one go.
23
5

24 Mar 2011 01:21

I know of 2 places that havent been mentioned yet, where you can hack over and over again.

On Noveria, when you go into the reactor to restor power, leave your allies standing in the ante-room (the first room after the hallway from the elevator). Take out the 2 destroyers and 2 stalkers down the hallways without walking past the doors to the ante-room (hack them if you want also). then slowly back out of the hallway on the right hand side. on the level above there is a Geth Juggernaut which you can hack if you've maxed out Hacking. You can hide in safety of the roof while you recharge.

In the final level, when you are walking up the side of the tower, there are parts where you go through side alleys of sorts. There's usually a Krogan or two in there to kill, but if you stay near the middle, a Geth Destroyer will keep spawning at the far end. Hide your allies back around the corner so they dont attack before you can hack. Then just hack the Destroyer, kill him, recharge and repeat.

Hope this helps.
18
4

15 Mar 2010 03:43

I did this on Feros, where the two Geth are kneeling by the light here you can hack one and they will fight leaving just one left when they're done. After this you can just keep hacking the same Geth until it pops. I just stayed on the upper level and when the Geth shot the wall would protect me. Pop a movie in the laptop and just hit the right bumper every couple of minutes and it the achievement will pop eventually.
14
1

24 Apr 2011 00:44

If you already beat the game with an engineer and had AI Hacking but didn't get the achievement (like I did), just start a new game and on Eden Prime after Jenkins dies order Kaiden to go back down the path you came from and tell him to hold position, then sit down behind cover and hack one of the drones, wait for it to cool and repeat. They never come after you and only took me an hour to start the game and get the achievement. I apparently only used it 10 times in my first play through so it shouldn't take anyone else too much longer.
11
1

11 Jul 2011 23:46

Feros seems to be the best planet for this achievement however, you needn't progress as far as these other solutions state. Immediately after exiting the normandy and the colonist's greeting, you'll have to battle a group of geth. Once you clear them out order your squad to hold position and walk towards the stairs. As long as you get your squad to hold position soon enough, they won't be able to fire into the stairway and you can keep hacking the geth sapper over and over. This helped me immensely because no matter what I tried, my squad would always attack the geth. Hopefully this helps someone :)
10
1
Just save before entering any room with the geth in it. Then enter the room, use AI Hacking skill, load the save you just made, and repeat. You don't need to be in a certain area or anything.
7
0

17 Sep 2015 21:04

If like me this is one of the last few achievements you needed and just wanted to get to level 6 as quick as possible. Make sure you put your talent points into the right talents to unlock this ability.

As an Engineer you need 7 points in Decryption before this ability can be used. If you use your points correctly you should unlock this and Neural Shock before reaching FIST to follow one of the other guides here.
4
0

22 Nov 2018 17:35

Must be an engineer.

The only one of these achievements that MUST be done on an enemy. First, level up to a level 10 and then use all your points on the AI Hacking power. Then you can hack any of the enemies you come across. You will know when an enemy is hacked cause it will attack other foes of yours and will indicate to you it is hacked instead of having an energy bar.

Just find a turret to use it on... Use it, hide, recharge, rinse and repeat. People have recommended the fight with Fist as a great time to do this with the two turrets in his office. Make a save just before this point, hack them both and reload the save. The hacks will go toward the achievement even though you didn't save your game after doing them.

0
0
*Please note that this solution contains Very Minor Spoilers*

This trophy is only obtainable while playing as an Engineer class. AI Hacking requires at least 1 point in the Hacking skill, which unlocks after putting 7 points in Decryption (8 total).

Important: This trophy requires a Synthetic target. This includes turrets.

Using AI Hacking naturally while progressing through the first game world will put a big dent into the 75 needed casts to get this trophy as the vast majority of enemies are synthetic. However due to the requirements to unlock Hacking, a new character will definitely come up shy of the mark before reaching the Citadel. Of course through natural gameplay, AI hacking is easy to complete as there are more than enough Geth and other synthetic targets, but to speed up the process, follow these steps.

Once you reach the Citadel, progress through a few main missions. Without giving too many details, there's one point where you go to Chora's Den and confront a man named Fist. Before entering Fist's office, save your game. Command your allies to stay outside, then enter his office and take cover against the left wall. Two turrets will rise from the floor on either side of the small wall Fist hides behind. Use AI Hacking on the right turret first (or it might hit you). After the skill recharges, Hack the left turret, but be careful not to linger. Once both turrets are hacked, the game automatically progresses to a cut scene (which just wastes time before you can load again). So before this happens, reload your save and repeat these steps. Additionally, if you have a few extra skill points, put them in your class skill to somewhat reduce recharge time (this won't save much time, but also doesn't hurt).

Alternatively, you can hack either turret and then immediately reload. If you have auto save off, this would be the faster method.

*Please note that normally Fist and the left turret destroy the right turret after it's hacked, but if they don't and it kills the other turret, the game progresses to the aforementioned cut-scene, so be aware of this.

Final note: Only Neural Shock and AI Hacking require specific targets. Other Engineer skills can be cast into the wall/ground/air.
0
0

13 Feb 2015 01:57

I didn't have enough points for the above strategy, but I found a new one. Just before you climb the hill to the mine where you find Liara, there is a Geth Sniper in a tower. He cannot hit you if you are in cover to the left of the big metal plate, and your squad probably won't shoot at him. He will shoot at his friends for a moment and is protected from their revenge shots so he won't take any damage from them.
0
0

07 Aug 2019 23:35