Deus Ex: Human Revolution Hints

Hacking Tips

• 1 of 10: There are a whole lot of locked devices in the game that you can optionally hack to get XP and other rewards. Due to this, you should use most of your early Praxis points to buy hacking augmentation upgrades. (See the Hacking Upgrade List.)
• 2 of 10: Always quicksave before attempting to hack a device. Even if it'll let you try to hack it several times, you'll still want to be able to quickrestore if you mess up a hack after using any Nuke or Stop! software items, since you won't get those back. Also, a failed hack will often sound an alarm.
• 3 of 10: If you can't hack a device without someone seeing you and turning hostile, you can try waiting until they wander off, or you can hit them with a takedown move if that won't turn anyone else hostile. Another option is to make a stack of movable crates in a spot that'll block their view of you while you're doing the hack. If you're in enemy territory, do your best to eliminate all nearby enemies before attempting a hack.
• 4 of 10: When the hacking screen comes up, de-zoom it so you can see everything, then take your time planning your route to the registry node. Unless there's a danger of being seen by a patrolling guard or something like that, there's no need to rush before the diagnostic subroutine starts up (which can only happen after you capture or fortify a node).
• 5 of 10: The first thing to do is check the diagnostic subroutine's "stack of red squares" node to see if you can capture it. That'll sometimes be possible, though it's often attached to a one-way connection that leads out of it, which makes it impossible to capture. If you can capture it, you should go straight for it, since capturing it will end the hack successfully and get you the contents of all the datastore nodes (if there are any).
• 6 of 10: When the diagnostic subroutine starts running, you'll have a limited time to finish the hack before failing it. If you can see that there's no way you can finish it in time, hit the "disconnect" tab at the bottom of the screen. If you didn't use any Nuke or Stop! software items, and there's at least one more try left, you can try again without quickrestoring.
• 7 of 10: One thing you can do to extend the amount of time you have after the diagnostic subroutine starts running is hit the SPACEBAR to use a Stop! worm (if you have any). That'll freeze the diagnostic subroutine for 5 seconds. If that's not enough, you can use another Stop! worm after it starts up again to get another 5-second freeze. (Or you can use two at once to get a 10-second freeze.)
• 8 of 10: Another time-extending option that's sometimes available is to capture a cog-wheel-shaped API node that has the word "SPAM" on it. If the diagnostic subroutine hasn't started up yet, that'll interfere with its ability to do so. If it has started up, it'll be slowed down or maybe even stopped.
• 9 of 10: Strategic use of Nuke viruses will often be necessary to complete a difficult hack. If you choose to nuke a node instead of capturing it, you'll capture it without any chance of detection by the diagnostic subroutine. Also, the capture is instantaneous no matter how high the node's difficulty rating is, which makes Nukes useful even after the diagnostic subroutine has started. Is the node that you need to capture in three seconds or less rated 5 or 6? Nuke it!
• 10 of 10: One last thing to keep in mind is that if you have paths available to two or more nodes that you want to capture, you don't have to wait until one of them is captured before you start on capturing another one. You can choose to start a capture on one of them, then immediately choose to start a capture on another one. This is particularly useful if both nodes have high difficulty ratings, and will therefore take awhile to capture.

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