Hacking

Hacking a destroyed Vossk freighter.

"Far beyond the final frontier, there lie all different kinds of hidden treasures -- clouded by cosmic nebulae and concealed from the eyes of the beholder. For centuries, seekers of fortune have not only risked all their property but also their lives to get these precious rarities into their expectant hands. But no one knows where to search and where to find these sought-after troves of richness..."

-- Supernova trailer, while showing a destroyed freight ship

Hacking is a minigame introduced in the Supernova add-on. Unlike most minigames, this puzzle is often performed in hostile spaces.

Conditions for Hacking

Only large ships are able to be hacked, most of them usually in a derelict state, but a few are important to the Supernova storyline. Approaching a large ship to hack is identical to approaching an asteroid to mine: Lock onto it with the ship's scanner and press the fire button to automatically dock. Upon reaching a certain distance, the ship will orient itself so that its bottom center touches the ship's docking area.

While hacking, the ship is vulnerable to enemy fire and attempts at it will often be interrupted by the ship being destroyed. It is advised to equip a cloak and automatic turret to allow more time to hack the ship of interest.

Terminology and Procedure

Upon docking, two panels identified (in the Supernova trailer) as ID-scan params appear. The params consist of six rectangular symbols arranged two by three, each occupying a trigger slot. On the sides of the top param are two push-pull knobs that rotate the adjacent square of symbols clockwise around an axis in its centre.

The actual hacking part involves rotating the symbols on the top param until their trigger slot positions match the bottom param. When the positions match, the bottom param wil disappear, and the top one will flash in yellow to confirm a successful hack.

The item the ID-scan param was trying to protect is immediately transferred to the ship's cargo hold, and the player must press the primary fire button to depart from the location. All hackings will put pressure on the player by imposing either a time limit or a significant chance of being destroyed, or, in the case of hacking Valkarie, BOTH will be imposed.

Many blueprint items intoduced in said add-on can only be obtained through hacking.

A Step by Step Guide to easy Hacking

1. Engage your equipped cloaking device, put down some mines or sentry guns and have an automatic turret.
2. Dock at what ever it is you are going to hack.
3. Try and match up 2 of the panels. Bear in mind that for this to work the panels you match up have to be either the top and bottom left OR the top and bottom right, whichever you find easiest.
4. Once you have got 2 panels into the right place you need to keep changing the side with the panels that you didn't match up. For example, if you matched up the top and bottom right panels then you would need to keep rotating the left and centre panels until they matched up (tap the left rotation button). It is exactly the same if you did it with the top and bottom left panels, you just need to switch the instructions.
5. The hacking process should be finished by then when the main pannel is blinking in yellow. You do not need to take off in order to use the Khador Drive - You can use it directly.