Hackmud

Table of Contents

• About this Repository
  • A Word of Caution
  • Avoiding Spoilers
  • Fixing Errors
  • Contributing to the Repository
• Repository Requirements
• How to Set Up the Development Environment
• What is Hackmud?
  • The Nature of the Game
  • The Best Way to Play
• Configuring the UI
  • Configure Chat Message Display
  • Mute Messages from Users
  • Change the Size of the UI
  • Change The Levels of Visual Effects
  • Change the Volume of Sound Effects and Background Music
• Getting Started - Prove your Sentience
• Life after VLan
  • Upgrades
    • View Upgrades
    • Loading/Unloading Upgrades
    • Reordering Upgrades
    • Deleting Upgrades
    • Upgrade Rarity
  • Scripts
    • Script Levels
    • FULLSEC
    • HIGHSEC
    • MIDSEC
    • LOWSEC
    • NULLSEC
  • Locs (NPCs and Players)
  • Avoiding Scams
• Writing Your First Script
• Hacking NPCs
• Understanding Your System
  • Class
  • Tier
    • Tier 0 (Uninitialized)
    • Tier 1
    • Tier 2
    • Tier 3
    • Tier 4
  • System Rating
  • Hardline Count / Next Hardline
  • Channel Count
  • GC Max
  • Upgrade Space
  • Script Space
• Asking for Help
• Helpful Scripts

About this Repository

This repository will guide you through how to play Hackmud as well as provide premade scripts that you can use to gather resources and explore. It is meant to be as comprehensive as possible and provide direct, clear answers to players' questions about the game and how to play it, even if that means spoiling the "mystery".

The information in this repo is limited to what its author(s) know about Hackmud either through direct experience or via the player community. The goal of this repository is to collect all of the various tips, tricks, and spoilers about the game and aggregate them into a single place. If you have information you want to contribute, see "Contributing to the Repository".

A Word of Caution

As the login prompt at the start of Hackmud states, "larceny, laundering, theft of currency and information, deception, betrayal, and backstabbing" are all part of Hackmud. They could very well be part of this repo.

Avoiding Spoilers

This README file does its best to avoid spoilers for the game. Any document in this repository that does contain spoilers will contain a warning. If you want to avoid unintentional spoilers, read only the information contained within this README and avoid anything else in the repo (including scripts).

Fixing Errors

If you find an error (incorrect information or typos), please open an issue.

Contributing to the Repository

If you have a feature you would like to add or information you want to share, please submit a merge request or open an issue.

If you want to show in-game support for this project, you can send gifts of upgrades or GC to opnsrce.

Repository Requirements

In order to use this repo, you'll need to have the following on your system:

• Node 16.13.1 or greater
• The ability to run linux commands like ln on your system.

This repo was has been developed on a unix-based operating system and may not be fully compatible with windows. If you do run into issues on windows, please open an issue.

How to Set Up the Development Environment

From the command line, run:

npm run start

Then, follow the prompts.

What is Hackmud?

From the website:

hackmud is a cyberpunk themed text-based hacking simulator for intel-compatible personal home computers. Get lost in a deep and complex world full of challenging puzzles. Make friends and enemies as you explore the depths of abandoned future internet cyber-structure. Navigate the strange trials laid out for you by the Multi-User Domain’s governing cyber-super-intelligence, 'The Trust' 'Patch into the hardline' to access protected systems and steal their digital goods Prove your worth to The Trust and escape the virtual L.A.N. Create and destroy digital empires while exploring the user-created multiplayer world.

The Nature of the Game

Hackmud, like the name suggests, is a MUD - a text based, multi-user game where players explore a virtual world using a "terminal" provided by the software. Think of it like World of Warcraft but without any pictures.

Unlike a lot of MMOs, Hackmud doesn't have a single-player story to help drive or guide the user through the game. Once you leave the tutorial (VLAN), you're really on your own. For some people, this lack of direction offers a lot of personal freedom - they get to define what kind of game they want to play and how to play it. For other folks, the lack of structure makes makes Hackmud feel like nothing more than a sandbox game for programmers.

When I booted up Hackmud, I felt very much a part of the second group. Outside of the VLAN, Hackmud felt very much like the early days of Minecraft - sure, it was fun to punch trees and build a house, but once you've mastered the basics, it doesn't feel like there's much else to do.

This is why it's important to think of Hackmud not as a game, but as a giant puzzle box. Hackmud lacks guide posts by design. As a player, you're meant to try stuff. Find a lock you've never seen before? Start passing in random parameters to break it. Discover a random script in a sector? Run it and see what happens.

A lot of "official" information you'll find on the Hackmud environment is actually cobbled together notes from various players doing trial-and-error on something they found. No one actually knows what they're doing.

If solving puzzles without a picture on the box sounds like a good time to you, then give Hackmud a try. If not, (but you still love the hacker aesthetic) I recommend you check out Hacknet instead.

The Best Way to Play

The purest way to play Hackmud is through random exploration and risk taking, never asking for help outside the game and never searching for answers online.

The best way to play Hackmud is whatever way is the most fun for you as a player.

Poke around for hours, never asking for help.

Jump into the discord and ask veteran players for tips.

Read every spoiler in this repo. Steal every script I've written and use it to mine every NPC corp you can find.

Do whatever makes you happy and lets you enjoy the game you paid for the most. Don't let anyone tell you you're playing a game with no structure or goals "the wrong way".

Configuring the UI

Configure Chat Message Display

Usage:

gui.chats{shell: <boolean>, chat: <boolean>}

By default, chat messages are sent to the shell (the main part of the screen) and the chat window. This makes it easy to see new messages when they come in but it also means that chat messages will interrupt any text on the screen while you're working on something.

To turn off chat messages in the shell, set shell to false. To turn off chat messages in the chat window, set chat to false.

Mute Messages from Users

Usage:

gui.quiet{add: <username>, remove: <username>, list: <boolean>, clear: <boolean>}

Use this script if you want to grey-out chat messages from specific users. It doesn't actually remove them from the chat window, unfortunately. It's also quite buggy. If the user you've "quieted" puts newlines in their message, every line after the first newline comes through normally (not grayed out). If you want to hang out in 0000 but want to reduce the bot noise, add these names to your quiet list with:

gui.quiet{add: "<username>"}

add: Adds the passed in username to the quiet list. remove: Adds the passed in username from the quiet list. list: If true, lists all users on the quiet list clear Removes all users from the quiet list.

Change the Size of the UI

Usage:

gui.size(i: <-20 to 20>)

Use this script to make your UI larger or smaller. 20 is really big and -20 is so small it's almost invisible.

Change The Levels of Visual Effects

Usage:

gui.vfx{ bloom:<0-11>, noise:<0-11>, scan:<0-11>, bend:<0-11>}

Use this script to change the level of text bloom, visual noise, scanlines, and animations.

Change the Volume of Sound Effects and Background Music

Usage:

gui.vol {sfx:<0-11>, bgm:<0-11>}

Use this script to change the volume of the sound effects and background music.

Getting Started - Prove your Sentience

The best thing you can do for yourself is to work through the (multi-hour long) tutorial. Yes, it's a lot to take in, but I promise you'll be glad you did once you make it out of of the VLAN.

Life after VLan

Once you've escaped the VLAN and made your way to the main game, the first thing you should do is run the tutorial script teach_si_x80d.each_other. This will guide you through the basics of how to find and break into systems, collect GC (the in-game currency), and eventually initialize your system.

Upgrades

Upgrades are software that you install on your system. An upgrade does one of the following:

• Defend your system against intrusion (lock)
• Increase storage space (script character count, script slots, etc.,)
• Allow you to attack other players
• Display trophies you've won during events (see: Glam)

Upgrades fall into one of the following categories:

• Locks: Used to defend your system.
• Architect: Used for writing and publishing scripts.
• Infiltrator: Used for stealing information from a target.
• Scavenger: Used to stealing upgrades from a target.
• Executive: Used for managing how many chat channels you can join.

View Upgrades

To view upgrades currently saved on your system, run sys.upgrades:

full:true for upgrade details
i: to pre-filter on index(es)

000 tier_1 lock         DATA_CHECK_V1
001 tier_1 lock         l0cket
002 tier_1 lock         ez_40
003 tier_1 lock         c003
004 tier_1 script_space char_count_v1
005 tier_1 script_space char_count_v1
006 tier_1 script       expose_access_log_v1
007 tier_1 script_space script_slot_v1
008 tier_1 script_space char_count_v1
009 tier_1 script_space script_slot_v1
010 tier_1 script_space char_count_v1
011 tier_1 script_space char_count_v1
012 tier_1 script_space script_slot_v1
013 tier_1 script       w4rn_message
014 tier_1 lock         ez_21
015 tier_1 tool         k3y_v1
016 tier_1 script       log_writer_v1
017 tier_1 script_space public_script_v1

Indexes that are in cyan are upgrades that are loaded. To learn more about an upgrade, run:

sys.upgrades{i: <index>, full: true}

Loading/Unloading Upgrades

In order for an upgrade to work on your system, it needs to be loaded. To load an upgrade:

sys.manage{load: <index or array>}

For example, to load upgrade 13:

sys.manage{load: 13}

You can unload an upgrade the same way:

sys.manage{unload: 13}

Reordering Upgrades

The order that locks are listed and loaded in your system is the order that intruders will have to break them in. To reorder upgrades:

sys.manage{reorder: [{from: 10, to: 2}]}

In this example, we're moving char_count_v1 from index 10 to index 2.

Deleting Upgrades

To delete one or more upgrades:

sys.cull{i: <index or array>, confirm: true}

You cannot delete loaded upgrades.

Upgrade Rarity

An upgrade can have one of the following rarity levels:

0 noob (grey)
1 kiddie (white)
2 h4x0r (green)
3 h4rdc0r3 (blue)
4 |_|b3|2 (purple)
5 31337 (orange)

All upgrades have a rarity level. The higher the rarity level, the better the upgrade. For example, a char_count_v1 upgrade that's got a rarity of h4x0r is going to have a greater character count than the same upgrade with a rarity of noob.

Scripts

Scripts are how players interact with the Hackmud environment. Nearly everything you will interact with as a player (e.g., locks, upgrades, corps) either comes from or is a script.

Script Levels

Every script has a security level. You can learn the security level of a given script by running scripts.get_level{name: "<script>"}.

FULLSEC

FULLSEC is the safest security level. By default, all scripts start off as FULLSEC scripts, provided that no dependencies of a lower sec level are called.

HIGHSEC

HIGHSEC scripts are able to call scripts such as accts.balance, accts.transactions, sys.upgrades, and sys.upgrade_log.

MIDSEC

Scripts are MIDSEC are capable of transferring GC out of your user's accts balance with accts.xfer_gc_to, can retrieve a list of every chat channel you are in with chats.channels (as well as join and leave them with chats.join and chats.leave) and can manage upgrades with sys.manage.

LOWSEC

LOWSEC scripts can transfer, sell and destroy upgrades using sys.xfer_upgrade_to, market.sell and sys.cull respectively. They can also call sys.loc, revealing your loc to the script.

NULLSEC

NULLSEC is the least safe security level. At NULLSEC, corporation-related activities can be managed with the corps.* scripts, binmat.* scripts can play BINMAT sessions automatically, your users.inspect profile can be modified with users.config and sys.breach can immediately breach one's system, bypassing all locks and BINMAT.

Locs (NPCs and Players)

Locs (short for location, pronounced "lokes") are the "address" of an initialized system. With this address, you can break into a system (player or NPC). To see your own loc (after you've initialized your system), run sys.loc.

Avoiding Scams

Before you run any script you find, always pass it to scripts.get_level to see if it is safe.

Writing Your First Script

Greg Smith's Hackmud Cracking Guide does a far better (spoiler free) job of explaining how scripts work and how to write one than I ever will. If you want something geared towards JavaScript engineers (and programmers) in general, check out my scripting guide.

Hacking NPCs

To learn how to hack NPCs, see my hacking guide.

Understanding Your System

Run sys.specs to get an overview of your system.

>>sys.specs
     // / \\_ _|/ ||\   
    || |  =█◣██◢█ || |  
    || | ((-- --- || |  

opnsrce (weaver)

tier: 2

hardline_count: 24
next_hardline: 1033s

architect(30) junkrack(14) infiltrator(4) scavenger(0) executive(0) 

channel_count: 5

gc_max: 5BGC

upgrade space
slots: 34/64
loaded: 13/16

script space
publics: 0
slots: 5
chars: 3763

Class

Your "class" is based on what type of upgrades you have loaded and how many.

weaver: Most of your upgrades are architect class

turtle: Most of your upgrades are locks.

wolf: Most of your upgrades are infiltrator class.

raven: Most of your upgrades are scavenger class.

stag: Most of your upgrades are executive class.

Broadly speaking, your class doesn't affect gameplay. However, there are certain locks that will behave differently based on what class you are.

Tier

What system your tier has been initialized at. Your system's tier determines how much money you can have, and how many upgrades you can store and load.

Tier 0 (Uninitialized)

Tier 0 is where your system starts when you first leave the VLAN. Uninitialized systems can't use upgrades, call player locs, or run BINMAT. Uninitialized systems have a GC cap of 5 million.

Uninitalized systems cannot be harmed even when breached. A lot of veteran users keep an uninitialized system as an alt so they can safely test untrusted scripts.

Tier 1

Initializing to Tier 1 allows the user to obtain upgrades, can hold a maximum of 32 upgrades at a time, can load a maximum of 8 upgrades at a time, and can only hold Tier 1 upgrades. Tier 1 systems can hold a maximum of 20MGC. The BINMAT fee for Tier 1 users is 8MGC.

Tier 1 systems are assigned a loc, which cannot be changed once it has been assigned. When a Tier 1 system is breached, they are vulnerable to the PvP scripts sys.expose_access_log and sys.write_log.

Initializing to tier 1 costs 1MGC.

Tier 2

Initializing to Tier 2 allows the user to hold a maximum of 64 upgrades at a time, load a maximum of 16 upgrades at a time, and can hold Tier 2 upgrades. Tier 2 systems can hold a maximum of 5BGC. The BINMAT fee for Tier 2 users is 512MGC.

Tier 2 systems, in addition to the previous tier of vulnerabilities, become vulnerable to the PvP scripts sys.expose_balance, sys.expose_transactions, sys.expose_upgrades, sys.expose_upgrade_log, and sys.xfer_gc_from. This means that GC can be stolen from users that are Tier 2 or higher.

Initializing to Tier 2 costs 10MGC.

It costs 10 million GC to upgrade your system to Tier 2.

Tier 3

Initializing to Tier 3 allows the user to hold a maximum of 128 upgrades at a time, load a maximum of 32 upgrades at a time, and can hold Tier 3 upgrades. Tier 3 systems can hold a maximum of 5TGC. The BINMAT fee for Tier 3 users is 8BGC.

Tier 3 systems, in addition to the previous tier of vulnerabilities, become vulnerable to the PvP script sys.xfer_upgrade_from. This means that unloaded upgrades can be stolen from users that are Tier 3 or higher.

Initializing to Tier 3 costs 100MGC.

Tier 4

Tier 4 is the final tier available to users. A tier 4 system can hold 256 upgrades at a time, can load 64 upgrades at a time and can hold every tier of upgrade. Tier 4 systems have no limit to the amount of GC they can hold, as the maximum is equal to the theoretical maximum amount of GC in the game. The BINMAT fee for tier 4 users is 32BGC.

Currently, there are no additional PvP script vulnerabilities inherent in tier 4 users, however initializing to tier 4 means that the player has agreed to be introduced to any risks the tier may introduce in the future.

Initializing to tier 4 costs 1BGC.

System Rating

The rating of your system is based on how many locks you have loaded and their quality. Lock quality is calculated as 2^(lockTier)+LockRarity So a grey EZ_40 lock (tier1, 0 rarity) is worth 2 points towards your system rating. Possible system ratings and their points ranges are:

• Junkrack (jr): 0-17
• Diggerdeck (dd): 18-29
• Wreckbox (wb): 30-42
• Phreakrig: (pr): 43-69
• Leetstack (ls): 70+

Your system's rating does not directly impact gameplay.

Hardline Count / Next Hardline

In order to breach a loc, you first have to connect it via kernel.hardline. The amount of times you can run kernel.hardline in a given 12 hour period is based on your system's tier:

• Tier 0: 256
• Tier 1: 32
• Tier 2: 24
• Tier 3: 18
• Tier 4: 12

Hardline caused by a BINMAT defense do not subtract from your hardline count. Only one system can be connected to per hardline connection, but each successful breach grants an extra connection attempt up to a maximum of three bonus connections. So,A Tier 4 user who is successful in all of their breach attempts, can potentially breach 48 systems using their 12 available hardlines in a 12-hour period.

In the early days of the game, higher tier users were farming all of the low-tier NPCs, making it nearly impossible for new users to gain GC. Limiting hardlines forces higher tier users to engage with content at their level in order to succeed.

hardline_count displays how many hardlines you have left. next_hardline displays how long until you regenerate a single hardline.

Channel Count

channel_count is how many in-game chat channels you can be in simultaneously. This number really only comes into play when searching sectors for scripts (see: HACKING_GUIDE).

GC Max

gc_max is how much GC your system can hold at a given time based on your system's tier.

Upgrade Space

This section shows how many total upgrades you have out of the max possible and how many upgrades you have loaded out of the max possible.

upgrade space
slots: 34/64
loaded: 13/16

In this example, the system has 34 out of a possible 64 upgrades in storage and has 13 out of 16 possible upgrades loaded. Loaded upgrades count towards the total number of upgrades.

Script Space

This section shows information about how many scripts you have and how many characters a script is allowed to have.

publics: How many uploaded scripts you are allowed to mark as public (default is 0). slots: How many scripts total you are allowed to upload (default is 1). chars The max number of characters allowed in a single script (default is 500).

Asking for Help

Hackmud has a robust and active community supporting it and they don't mind helping new players. In game, channels like c00lest_kats and town are good places for folks to ask questions, but they're also full of spam and bots. Your best bet for getting questions answered is to join the Discord Server.

Helpful Scripts

These are scripts that might be helpful to you as you poke around the network.

• dtr.man
• lore.data_check
• dtr.t1_lock_sim
• teach.me
• teach_si_x80d.each_other