Rival Hacker – Strategy Guide


Journalist The Rival Hacker is an Agent Friendly neutral class – in fact, it’s pretty much an AGENT ally, as your win condition allows you to win together with AGENTs, or alone (with both NETSEC and AGENT losing).

The catch, however, is that if your cover is too good, AGENTs may be convinced you are NETSEC and arrest or convert you, so you need to still be on your toes all the time.


General Tips


The Rival Hacker priority is to understand who the AGENTs are. Your hacking skill are quite good so it’s easier getting confirmed by claiming a NETSEC hacking class.

  • Make good use of your Harden Node, possibly on a chokepoint. It will still leave a log, so you can safely claim you tried to hack the target.
  • Using Jam Network can be a great way to let the AGENTs know that there is a Rival Hacker in play. They want to find you as much as you want to find them.
  • Your passive skill Blackmailed Informer will automatically give you information on who the agents are probably going to act on – use that to your advantage.
  • Use your skills to slow down netsec as much as possible while trying to find out who the AGENTs are. Be aware that being a too much successful hacker will likely put a target on your back.
  • Claiming Blackhat is difficult due to the lack of Denial of Service, however, you can try to piggyback on other players and claim you were also doing it. It may raise some suspicion though, so be careful.
  • Make sure to never claim that you are a Rival Hacker – that will generally lead to an instant vote.

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