Hacking Missions

Hacking Missions
Hacking missions are a mechanic in the game that helps acquire Faction Reputation. Each mission you complete gives a signifigant amount of repuation, and losing gives no penalty. Difficulty increases as your reputation with the faction increases. Multiple cores can be purchased to help make the missions quicker and easier.

In this game you control a set of Nodes and use them to try and beat the opponent. Your Nodes are colored blue, while the enemy's are red. There are also other nodes on the map colored gray that initially belong to neither you nor the enemy, and are referred to as miscellenaous Nodes. The goal of the game is to capture all of the enemy's Database nodes within the time limit. If you run out of time, you will lose. To capture a Node, you must lower its HP down to 0 through the "Attack" function.

Each Node has three stats: Attack, Defense, and HP. There are five different actions that a Node can take:
 * Attack - Targets an enemy Node and lowers its HP. The effectiveness is determined by the your Attack, your hacking level, and the enemy's defense.
 * Scan - Targets an enemy Node and lowers its Defense. The effectiveness is determined by the your Attack, your hacking level, and the enemy's defense.
 * Weaken - Targets an enemy Node and lowers its Attack. The effectiveness is determined by the your Attack, your hacking level, and the enemy's defense.
 * Fortify - Raises the Node's Defense. The effectiveness is determined by your hacking level.
 * Overflow - Raises the Node's Attack but lowers its Defense. The effectiveness is determined by your hacking level.

Note that when determining the effectiveness of the above actions, the TOTAL Attack or Defense of the team is used, not just the Attack/Defense of the individual Node that is performing the action. However, if multiple nodes are performing actions on the same node, the effects of their actions will stack (i.e. using two CPU Cores to target one node is twice as fast as using just one)

There are six different types of Nodes:
 * CPU Core - These are your main Nodes that are used to perform actions. They are capable of performing every action.
 * Firewall - Nodes with high defense. These Nodes can 'Fortify', and are the main source of the enemy's defense.
 * Database - A special type of Node. The player's objective is to conquer all of the enemy's Database Nodes within the time limit. These Nodes cannot perform any actions.
 * Spam - Conquering one of these Nodes will slow the enemy's trace, giving the player 25 extra seconds to complete the mission. These Nodes cannot perform any actions.
 * Transfer - Conquering one of these nodes will increase the Attack of all of your CPU Cores by around 5%. These Nodes are capable of performing every action except the 'Attack' action.
 * Shield - Nodes with high defense. These Nodes can 'Fortify'.

To assign an action to a Node, you must first select one of your Nodes. This can be done by simply clicking on it. Double-clicking a node will select all of your Nodes of the same type (e.g. select all CPU Core Nodes or all Transfer Nodes). Note that only Nodes that can perform actions (CPU Core, Transfer, Shield, Firewall) can be selected. Selected Nodes will be denoted with a white highlight. After selecting a Node or multiple Nodes, select its action using the Action Buttons near the top of the screen. Every action also has a corresponding keyboard shortcut.

For attacking, scanning, and weakening, the Node performing the action must have a target. To target another node, simply click-and-drag from the 'source' Node to a target. A Node can only have one target at a time, and you can target any Node that is adjacent to one of your Nodes (immediately above, below, or to the side. NOT diagonal). Furthermore, only CPU Cores and Transfer Nodes can target, since they are the only ones that can perform the related actions. To remove a target, you can simply click on the line that represents the connection between one of your Nodes and its target. Alternatively, you can select the 'source' Node and click the 'Drop Connection' button, or press 'd'. Dropping a connection sets the original node to "Fortify".

Other Notes:
 * When never a miscellenaous Node (not owned by the player or enemy) is conquered, the defense of all the other miscellaneous Nodes that aren't actively being targeted (have a node targeting them) will increase by a fixed percentage.
 * When a Node is conquered, its stats are reduced signifigantly.
 * Miscellaneous Nodes raise their defense over time, albeit slowly.
 * Nodes regenerate health over time, albeit slowly.
 * If your attack is lower than a node's defense, attacking it will only decrease its health by 1 per node. Consider scanning it first.

Strategy
It is recommended that you have at least 2 CPU Cores and at least 300 Hacking Level, as this will make the missions much easier.

Optimally, you want to aim to get as many Transfer nodes as possible. When in a choice between Spam and Shield, always pick spam nodes. Shield nodes are basically useless, as Defense does nothing for your team.

Transfer node tips: Other tips: ing
 * The best way to use Transfer nodes is to increase attack. When you conquer a Transfer node, your attack is multiplied by 1.05, but you can also switch between "Fortify" and "Overflow" to increase attack even more.
 * If necessary, you can use Transfer nodes to "Scan" other nodes. This can be used to try and lower a Firewall node's defense to 0, which is a nice boost for your team. This usually isn't the best purpose, however.
 * When in a choice between a Transfer node and any other node, always choose the Transfer node. Attack is almost always more important than time and if you see a group of Transfer nodes together, it may be wise to split your CPU cores and conquer all of them simultaneously.
 * When starting out with hacking missions (low hacking level, 2 Cores), it is best to Scan the targeted node first, and then Attack when its defense is near-zero. However, once you have over ~1500 Hacking Level and around 3 Cores, you can skip the Scanning step and simply Attack.
 * Try and get a good start when completing a Hacking Mission. This includes a Database node near you, not too many Firewall nodes, and a few Transfer nodes close to you.
 * This might just be my opinion, but more Database nodes and less Firewall nodes is better than the opposite; more Firewall nodes and less Databases. Hacke