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Note
Note that the scripts and strategies given in this guide aren’t necessarilyoptimal. They’re just meant to introduce you to the game and help you getstarted.
This is an introductory guide to getting started with Bitburner. It is not meant to be acomprehensive guide for the entire game, only the early stages. If you are confusedor overwhelmed by the game, especially the programming and scripting aspects, thisguide is perfect for you!
Note that this guide is tailored towards those with minimal programming experience.
Introduction¶
Bitburner is a cyberpunk-themed incremental RPG. The player progresses by raisingtheir Stats, earning money, and climbing the corporate ladder.Eventually, after reaching certain criteria, the player will begin receiving invitationsfrom Factions. Joining these factions and working for them will unlockAugmentations. Purchasing and installing Augmentations provide persistentupgrades and are necessary for progressing in the game.
The game has a minimal story/quest-line that can be followed to reach the end of the game.Since this guide is only about getting started with Bitburner, it will not cover theentire “quest-line”.
First Steps¶
I’m going to assume you followed the introductory tutorial when you first began the game.In this introductory tutorial you created a script called n00dles.script
and ran iton the n00dles
server. Right now, we’ll kill this script. There are two waysto do this:
You can go to the Terminal and enter:
$ kill n00dles.script
You can go to the
Active Scripts
page (Keyboard shortcut Alt + s) andpress the “Kill Script” button forn00dles.script
.
If you skipped the introductory tutorial, then ignore the part above. Instead, go to theHacknet Nodes
page (Keyboard shortcut Alt + h) and purchase aHacknet Node to start generating some passive income.
Creating our First Script¶
Now, we’ll create a generic hacking script that can be used early on in the game (or throughout theentire game, if you want).
Before we write the script, here are some things you’ll want to familiarize yourself with:
- General Hacking Mechanics
- Server Security
- hack()
- grow()
- weaken()
- brutessh()
- nuke()
To briefly summarize the information from the links above: Each server has asecurity level that affects how difficult it is to hack. Each server also has acertain amount of money, as well as a maximum amount of money it can hold. Hacking aserver steals a percentage of that server’s money. The hack() Netscript functionis used to hack a server. The grow() Netscript function is used to increasethe amount of money available on a server. The weaken() Netscript function isused to decrease a server’s security level.
Now let’s move on to actually creating the script.Go to your home computer and then create a script called early-hack-template.script
bygoing to Terminal and entering the following two commands:
$ home$ nano early-hack-template.script
This will take you to the script editor, which you can use to code and createScripts. It will be helpful to consult the Netscript documentation.Specifically, you’ll want to take a look at Netscript Basic Functions.
Enter the following code in the script editor:
// Defines the "target server", which is the server// that we're going to hack. In this case, it's "n00dles"var target = "n00dles";// Defines how much money a server should have before we hack it// In this case, it is set to 75% of the server's max moneyvar moneyThresh = getServerMaxMoney(target) * 0.75;// Defines the maximum security level the target server can// have. If the target's security level is higher than this,// we'll weaken it before doing anything elsevar securityThresh = getServerMinSecurityLevel(target) + 5;// If we have the BruteSSH.exe program, use it to open the SSH Port// on the target serverif (fileExists("BruteSSH.exe", "home")) { brutessh(target);}// Get root access to target servernuke(target);// Infinite loop that continously hacks/grows/weakens the target serverwhile(true) { if (getServerSecurityLevel(target) > securityThresh) { // If the server's security level is above our threshold, weaken it weaken(target); } else if (getServerMoneyAvailable(target) < moneyThresh) { // If the server's money is less than our threshold, grow it grow(target); } else { // Otherwise, hack it hack(target); }}
The script above contains comments that document what it does, but let’s go through itstep-by-step anyways.
var target = "n00dles";
This first command defines a string which contains our target server. That’s the serverthat we’re going to hack. For now, it’s set to n00dles because that’s the onlyserver with a required hacking level of 1. If you want to hack a different server,simply change thisvariable to be the hostname of another server.
var moneyThresh = getServerMaxMoney(target) * 0.75;
This second command defines a numerical value representing the minimumamount of money that must be available on the target server in order for our scriptto hack it. If the money available on the target server is less than this value,then our script will grow() the server rather than hacking it.It is set to 75% of the maximum amount of money that can be available on the server.The getServerMaxMoney() Netscript function is used to find this value
var securityThresh = getServerMinSecurityLevel(target) + 5;
This third command defines a numerical value representing the maximum security levelthe target server can have. If the target server’s security level is higher thanthis value, then our script will weaken() the script before doing anything else.
if (fileExists("BruteSSH.exe", "home")) { brutessh(target);}nuke(target);
This section of code is used to gain root access on the target server. This isnecessary for hacking. See here for more details.
while (true) { if (getServerSecurityLevel(target) > securityThresh) { // If the server's security level is above our threshold, weaken it weaken(target); } else if (getServerMoneyAvailable(target) < moneyThresh) { // Otherwise, if the server's money is less than our threshold, grow it grow(target); } else { // Otherwise, hack it hack(target); }}
This is the main section that drives our script. It dictates the script’s logicand carries out the hacking operations. The while (true) creates an infinite loopthat will continuously run the hacking logic until the the script is killed.
Running our Scripts¶
Now we want to start running our hacking script so that it can start earning usmoney and experience. Our home computer only has 8GB of RAM and we’ll be using it forsomething else later. So instead, we’ll take advantage of the RAM on other machines.
Go to Terminal
and enter the following command:
$ scan-analyze 2
This will show detailed information about some servers on the network. Thenetwork is randomized so it will be different for every person.Here’s what mine showed at the time I made this:
[home ~]> scan-analyze 2~~~~~~~~~~ Beginning scan-analyze ~~~~~~~~~~n00dles--Root Access: YES, Required hacking skill: 1--Number of open ports required to NUKE: 0--RAM: 4.00GB----zer0------Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 75------Number of open ports required to NUKE: 1------RAM: 32.00GBfoodnstuff--Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 1--Number of open ports required to NUKE: 0--RAM: 16.00GBsigma-cosmetics--Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 5--Number of open ports required to NUKE: 0--RAM: 16.00GBjoesguns--Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 10--Number of open ports required to NUKE: 0--RAM: 16.00GB----max-hardware------Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 80------Number of open ports required to NUKE: 1------RAM: 32.00GB----CSEC------Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 54------Number of open ports required to NUKE: 1------RAM: 8.00GBhong-fang-tea--Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 30--Number of open ports required to NUKE: 0--RAM: 16.00GB----nectar-net------Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 20------Number of open ports required to NUKE: 0------RAM: 16.00GBharakiri-sushi--Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 40--Number of open ports required to NUKE: 0--RAM: 16.00GBiron-gym--Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 100--Number of open ports required to NUKE: 1--RAM: 32.00GB
Take note of the following servers:
sigma-cosmetics
joesguns
nectar-net
hong-fang-tea
harakiri-sushi
All of these servers have 16GB of RAM. Furthermore, all of these servers do not requireany open ports in order to NUKE. In other words, we can gain root access to all of theseservers and then run scripts on them.
First, let’s determine how many threads of our hacking script we can run.Read more about multithreading scripts hereThe script we wroteuses 2.6GB of RAM. You can check this using the following Terminal
command:
$ mem early-hack-template.script
This means we can run 6 threads on a 16GB server. Now, to run our scripts on all of theseservers, we have to do the following:
- Use the scp
Terminal
command to copy our script to each server. - Use the connect
Terminal
command to connect to a server. - Use the run
Terminal
command to run the NUKE.exe program andgain root access. - Use the run
Terminal
command again to run our script. - Repeat steps 2-4 for each server.
Here’s the sequence of Terminal
commands I used in order to achieve this:
$ home$ scp early-hack-template.script n00dles$ scp early-hack-template.script sigma-cosmetics$ scp early-hack-template.script joesguns$ scp early-hack-template.script nectar-net$ scp early-hack-template.script hong-fang-tea$ scp early-hack-template.script harakiri-sushi$ connect n00dles$ run NUKE.exe$ run early-hack-template.script -t 1$ home$ connect sigma-cosmetics$ run NUKE.exe$ run early-hack-template.script -t 6$ home$ connect joesguns$ run NUKE.exe$ run early-hack-template.script -t 6$ home$ connect hong-fang-tea$ run NUKE.exe$ run early-hack-template.script -t 6$ home$ connect harakiri-sushi$ run NUKE.exe$ run early-hack-template.script -t 6$ home$ connect hong-fang-tea$ connect nectar-net$ run NUKE.exe$ run early-hack-template.script -t 6
Note
Pressing the Tab
key in the middle of a Terminal command will attempt toauto-complete the command. For example, if you type in scp ea
and thenhit Tab
, the rest of the script’s name should automatically be filled in.This works for most commands in the game!
The home Terminal
command is used to connect to the homecomputer. When running our scripts with the run early-hack-template.script -t 6
command, the -t 6
specifies that the script should be run with 6 threads.
Note that the nectar-net
server isn’t in the home computer’s immediate network.This means you can’t directly connect to it from home. You will have to search for itinside the network. The results of the scan-analyze 2 command we ran beforewill show where it is. In my case, I could connect to it by going fromhong-fang-tea -> nectar-net. However, this will probably be different for you.
After running all of these Terminal
commands, our scripts are now up and running.These will earn money and hacking experience over time. These gains will bereally slow right now, but they will increase once our hacking skill rises andwe start running more scripts.
Increasing Hacking Level¶
There are many servers besides n00dles
that can be hacked, but they havehigher required hacking levels. Therefore, we should raise our hacking level. Not onlywill this let us hack more servers, but it will also increase the effectiveness of our hackingagainst n00dles
.
The easiest way to train your hacking level is to visit Rothman University. You can do this byclicking the City tab on the left-hand navigation menu, or you can use thekeyboard shortcut Alt + w. Rothman University should be one of the buttonsnear the top. Click the button to go to the location.
Once you go to Rothman University, you should see a screen with several options. Theseoptions describe different courses you can take. You should click the first button, whichsays: “Study Computer Science (free)”.
After you click the button, you will start studying and earning hacking experience. While youare doing this, you cannot interact with any other part of the game until you click the buttonthat says “Stop taking course”.
Right now, we want a hacking level of 10. You need approximately 174 hacking experience to reachlevel 10. You can check how much hacking experience you have by clicking the Stats tabon the left-hand navigation menu, or by using Keyboard shortcut Alt + c.Since studying at Rothman University earns you 1 experience per second, this will take174 seconds, or approximately 3 minutes. Feel free to do something in the meantime!
Editing our Hacking Script¶
Now that we have a hacking level of 10, we can hack the joesguns
server. This serverwill be slightly more profitable than n00dles
. Therefore, we want to change our hackingscript to target joesguns
instead of n00dles
.
Go to Terminal
and edit the hacking script by entering:
$ home$ nano early-hack-template.script
At the top of the script, change the target variable to be joesguns:
var target = "joesguns";
Note that this will NOT affect any instances of the script that are already running.This will only affect instances of the script that are ran from this point forward.
Creating a New Script to Purchase New Servers¶
Next, we’re going to create a script that automatically purchases additional servers. Theseservers will be used to run many scripts. Running this script will initially be veryexpensive since purchasing a server costs money, but it will pay off in the long run.
In order to create this script, you should familiarize yourself with the followingNetscript functions:
- purchaseServer()
- getPurchasedServerCost()
- getPurchasedServerLimit()
- getServerMoneyAvailable()
- scp()
- exec()
Create the script by going to Terminal
and typing:
$ home$ nano purchase-server-8gb.script
Paste the following code into the script editor:
// How much RAM each purchased server will have. In this case, it'll// be 8GB.var ram = 8;// Iterator we'll use for our loopvar i = 0;// Continuously try to purchase servers until we've reached the maximum// amount of serverswhile (i < getPurchasedServerLimit()) { // Check if we have enough money to purchase a server if (getServerMoneyAvailable("home") > getPurchasedServerCost(ram)) { // If we have enough money, then: // 1. Purchase the server // 2. Copy our hacking script onto the newly-purchased server // 3. Run our hacking script on the newly-purchased server with 3 threads // 4. Increment our iterator to indicate that we've bought a new server var hostname = purchaseServer("pserv-" + i, ram); scp("early-hack-template.script", hostname); exec("early-hack-template.script", hostname, 3); ++i; }}
This code uses a while loop to purchase the maximum amount of servers using thepurchaseServer() Netscript function. Each of these servers will have8GB of RAM, as defined in the ram
variable. Note that the script uses the commandgetServerMoneyAvailable("home")
to get the amount of money you currently have.This is then used to check if you can afford to purchase a server.
Whenever the script purchases a new server, it uses the scp() function to copyour script onto that new server, and then it uses the exec() function toexecute it on that server.
To run this script, go to Terminal
and type:
$ run purchase-server-8gb.script
This purchase will continuously run until it has purchased the maximum number of servers.When this happens, it’ll mean that you have a bunch of new servers that are all runninghacking scripts against the joesguns
server!
Note
The reason we’re using so many scripts to hack joesguns
instead of targeting otherservers is because it’s more effective. This early in the game, we don’t have enough RAMto efficiently hack multiple targets, and trying to do so would be slow as we’d be spreadtoo thin. You should definitely do this later on, though!
Note that purchasing a server is fairly expensive, and purchasing the maximum amount ofservers even more so. At the time of writing this guide, the script above requires$11 million in order to finish purchasing all of the 8GB servers.Therefore, we need to find additional ways to make money to speedup the process! These are covered in the next section.
Additional Sources of Income¶
There are other ways to gain money in this game besides scripts & hacking.
Hacknet Nodes¶
If you completed the introductory tutorial, you were already introduced to this method: Hacknet Nodes.Once you have enough money, you can start upgrading your Hacknet Nodes in order to increaseyour passive income stream. This is completely optional. Since each Hacknet Node upgradetakes a certain amount of time to “pay itself off”, it may not necessarily be in your bestinterest to use these.
Nonetheless, Hacknet Nodes are a good source of income early in the game, althoughtheir effectiveness tapers off later on. If you do wind up purchasing and upgrading Hacknet Nodes,I would suggest only upgrading their levels for now. I wouldn’t bother with RAM and Coreupgrades until later on.
Crime¶
The best source of income right now is from committing crimes.This is because it not only gives you a large amount of money, but it also raises yourhacking level. To commit crimes, click on the City
tab on the left-handnavigation menu or use the Keyboard shortcut Alt + w.Then, click on the link that says The Slums
.
In the Slums, you can attempt to commit a variety of crimes, each of which gives certaintypes of experience and money if successful. See Crimes for more details.
Note
You are not always successful when you attempt to commit a crime. Nothing bad happensif you fail a crime, but you won’t earn any money and the experience gained will bereduced. Raising your stats improves your chance of successfully committing a crime.
Right now, the best option is the Rob Store
crime. This takes 60 seconds to attemptand gives $400k if successful. I suggest this crime because you don’t have to click or checkin too often since it takes a whole minute to attempt. Furthermore, it gives hacking experience,which is very important right now.
Alternatively, you can also use the Shoplift
crime. This takes 2 seconds to attemptand gives $15k if successful. This crime is slightly easier and is more profitablethan Rob Store
, but it requires constant clicking and it doesn’t givehacking experience.
Work for a Company¶
If you don’t want to constantly check in on the game to commit crimes, there’s another optionthat’s much more passive: working for a company.This will not be nearly as profitable as crimes, but it’s completely passive.
Go to the City
tab on the left-hand navigation menu and then go toJoe's Guns
. At Joe's Guns
, there will be an option that saysApply to be an Employee
. Click this to get the job. Then, a new optionwill appear that simply says Work
. Click this to start working.Working at Joe's Guns
earns $110 per second and also grants some experiencefor every stat except hacking.
Working for a company is completely passive. You can choose to focus on your work, dosomething else simultaneously, or switch between those two. While you focus on work,you will not be able to do anything else in the game. If you do something else meanwhile,you will not gain reputation at the same speed. You can cancel working at any time.You’ll notice that cancelling your work early causes you to lose out on some reputationgains, but you shouldn’t worry about this. Company reputation isn’t important right now.
Once your hacking hits level 75, you can visit Carmichael Security
in the cityand get a software job there. This job offers higher pay and also earns youhacking experience.
There are many more companies in the City
tab that offer more pay and also more gameplayfeatures. Feel free to explore!
After you Purchase your New Servers¶
After you’ve made a total of $11 million, your automatic server-purchasing script shouldfinish running. This will free up some RAM on your home computer. We don’t want this RAMto go to waste, so we’ll make use of it. Go to Terminal
and enter the following commands:
$ home$ run early-hack-template.script -t 3
Reaching a Hacking Level of 50¶
Once you reach a hacking level of 50, two new important parts of the game open up.
Creating your first program: BruteSSH.exe¶
On the left-hand navigation menu you will notice a Create Programs
tab with ared notification icon. This indicates that there are programs available to be created.Click on that tab (or use Keyboard shortcut Alt + p) and you’ll see alist of all the programs you can currently create. Hovering over a program will give abrief description of its function. Simply click on a program to start creating it.
Right now, the program we want to create is BruteSSH.exe
. This program is usedto open up SSH ports on servers. This will allow you to hack more servers,as many servers in the game require a certain number of opened ports in order forNUKE.exe
to gain root access.
When you are creating a program, you cannot interact with any other part of the game.Feel free to cancel your work on creating a program at any time, as your progress willbe saved and can be picked back up later. BruteSSH.exe
takes about10 minutes to complete.
Optional: Create AutoLink.exe¶
On the Create Programs
page, you will notice another program you can createcalled AutoLink.exe
. If you don’t mind waiting another 10-15 minutes, you shouldgo ahead and create this program. It makes it much less tedious to connect to other servers,but it’s not necessary for progressing.
Joining your first faction: CyberSec¶
Shortly after you reached level 50 hacking, you should have received a message thatsaid this:
Message received from unknown sender:We've been watching you. Your skills are very impressive. But you're wastingyour talents. If you join us, you can put your skills to good use and changethe world for the better. If you join us, we can unlock your full potential.But first, you must pass our test. Find and hack our server using the Terminal.-CyberSecThis message was saved as csec-test.msg onto your home computer.
If you didn’t, or if you accidentally closed it, that’s okay! Messages get saved ontoyour home computer. Enter the following Terminal
commands to view the message:
$ home$ cat csec-test.msg
This message is part of the game’s main “quest-line”. It is a message from theCyberSec
faction that is asking you to pass their test.Passing their test is simple, you just have to find their server and hack it throughthe Terminal
. Their server is called CSEC
.To do this, we’ll use the scan-analyzeTerminal command, just like we did before:
$ home$ scan-analyze 2
This will show you the network for all servers that are up to 2 “nodes” away fromyour home computer. Remember that the network is randomly generated so it’ll lookdifferent for everyone. Here’s the relevant part of my scan-analyze
results:
>iron-gym--Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 100--Number of open ports required to NUKE: 1--RAM: 32---->zer0------Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 75------Number of open ports required to NUKE: 1------RAM: 32---->CSEC------Root Access: NO, Required hacking skill: 54------Number of open ports required to NUKE: 1------RAM: 8
This tells me that I can reach CSEC
by going through iron-gym
:
$ connect iron-gym$ connect CSEC
Note
If you created the AutoLink.exe
program earlier, then there is an easiermethod of connecting to CSEC
. You’ll notice that in the scan-analyze
results, all of the server hostnames are white and underlined. You can simplyclick one of the server hostnames in order to connect to it. So, simply clickCSEC
!
Note
Make sure you notice the required hacking skill for the CSEC
server.This is a random value between 51 and 60. Although you receive the messagefrom CSEC once you hit 50 hacking, you cannot actually pass their testuntil your hacking is high enough to install a backdoor on their server.
After you are connected to the CSEC
server, you can backdoor it. Note that thisserver requires one open port in order to gain root access. We can open the SSH portusing the BruteSSH.exe
program we created earlier. In Terminal
:
$ run BruteSSH.exe$ run NUKE.exe$ backdoor
After you successfully install the backdoor, you should receive a factioninvitation from CyberSec
shortly afterwards. Accept it. If you accidentallyreject the invitation, that’s okay. Just go to the Factions
tab(Keyboard shortcut Alt + f) and you should see an option that lets youaccept the invitation.
Congrats! You just joined your first faction. Don’t worry about doing anythingwith this faction yet, we can come back to it later.
Using Additional Servers to Hack Joesguns¶
Once you have the BruteSSH.exe
program, you will be able to gain root accessto several additional servers. These servers have more RAM that you can use torun scripts. We’ll use the RAM on these servers to run more scripts that targetjoesguns
.
Copying our Scripts¶
The server’s we’ll be using to run our scripts are:
neo-net
zer0
max-hardware
iron-gym
All of these servers have 32GB of RAM. You can use the Terminal
commandscan-analyze 3
to see for yourself. To copy our hacking scripts onto these servers,go to Terminal
and run:
$ home$ scp early-hack-template.script neo-net$ scp early-hack-template.script zer0$ scp early-hack-template.script max-hardware$ scp early-hack-template.script iron-gym
Since each of these servers has 32GB of RAM, we can run our hacking script with 12 threadson each server. By now, you should know how to connect to servers. So find and connect toeach of the servers above using the scan-analyze 3
Terminal
command. Then, usefollowing Terminal
command to run our hackingscript with 12 threads:
$ run early-hack-template.script -t 12
Remember that if you have the AutoLink.exe
program, you can simply click on the hostname of a serverafter running scan-analyze to connect to it.
Profiting from Scripts & Gaining Reputation with CyberSec¶
Now it’s time to play the waiting game. It will take some time for your scripts to startearning money. Remember that most of your scripts are targeting joesguns
. It will take abit for them to grow() and weaken() the server to the appropriate valuesbefore they start hacking it. Once they do, however, the scripts will be very profitable.
Note
For reference, in about two hours after starting my first script, my scripts had aproduction rate of $20k per second and had earned a total of $70 million.(You can see these stats on the Active Scripts
tab).
After another 15 minutes, the production rate had increased to $25k per secondand the scripts had made an additional $55 million.
Your results will vary based on how fast you earned money from crime/working/hacknet nodes,but this will hopefully give you a good indication of how much the scripts can earn.
In the meantime, we are going to be gaining reputation with the CyberSec
faction.Go to the Factions
tab on the left-handnavigation menu, and from there select CyberSec
. In the middle ofthe page there should be a button for Hacking Contracts
.Click it to start earning reputation for the CyberSec
faction (as wellas some hacking experience). The higher your hacking level, the more reputation youwill gain. Note that while you are working for a faction, you can choose to not interactwith the rest of the game in any way to gain reputation at full speed. You can also select todo something else simultaneously, gaining reputation a bit more slowly, until you focus again.You can cancel your faction work at any time with no penalty to your reputation gained so far.
Purchasing Upgrades and Augmentations¶
As I mentioned before, within 1-2 hours I had earned over $200 million. Now, it’s timeto spend all of this money on some persistent upgrades to help progress!
Upgrading RAM on Home computer¶
The most important thing to upgrade right now is the RAM on your home computer. Thiswill allow you to run more scripts.
To upgrade your RAM, go to the City
tab and visit the company Alpha Enterprises
.There will be an option that says Purchase additional RAM for Home Computer
.Click it and follow the dialog box to upgrade your RAM.
I recommend getting your home computer’s RAM to at least 128GB. Getting it evenhigher would be better.
Purchasing your First Augmentations¶
Once you get ~1000 reputation with the CyberSec
faction, you can purchaseyour first Augmentation from them.
To do this, go to the Factions
tab on the left-hand navigation menu(Keyboard shortcut Alt + f) and select CyberSec
. There is an buttonnear the bottom that says Purchase Augmentations
. This will bring up apage that displays all of the Augmentations available from CyberSec
. Some of themmay be locked right now. To unlock these, you will need to earn morereputation with CyberSec
.
Augmentations give persistent upgrades in the form of multipliers. These aren’t verypowerful early in the game because the multipliers are small. However, the effectsof Augmentations stack multiplicatively with each other, so as you continue to installmany Augmentations their effects will increase significantly.
Because of this, I would recommend investing more in RAM upgrades for your home computer ratherthan Augmentations early on. Having enough RAM to run many scripts will allow you to makemuch more money, and then you can come back later on and get all these Augmentations.
Right now, I suggest purchasing at the very least the Neurotrainer I
Augmentation fromCyberSec
. If you have the money to spare, I would also suggest getting BitWire
andseveral levels of the NeuroFlux Governor
Augmentations. Note that each timeyou purchase an Augmentation,the price of purchasing another increases by 90%,so make sure you buy the most expensive Augmentation first. Don’t worry, once you choose toinstall Augmentations, their prices will reset back to their original values.
Next Steps¶
That’s the end of the walkthrough portion of this guide! You should continue to explorewhat the game has to offer. There’s quite a few features that aren’t covered or mentionedin this guide, and even more that get unlocked as you continue to play!
Also, check out the Netscript documentation to see what it has to offer. Writingscripts to perform and automate various tasks is where most of the fun in the game comesfrom (in my opinion)!
The following are a few things you may want to consider doing in the near future.
Installing Augmentations (and Resetting)¶
If you’ve purchased any Augmentations, you’ll need to install them before youactually gain their effects. Installing Augmentations is the game’s “soft-reset” or “prestige”mechanic. You can read more details about it here.
To install your Augmentations, click the Augmentations
tab on the left-hand navigationmenu (Keyboard shortcut Alt + a). You will see a list of all of the Augmentationsyou have purchased. Below that, you will see a button that says Install Augmentations
.Be warned, after clicking this there is no way to undo it (unless you load an earlier save).
Automating the Script Startup Process¶
Whenever you install Augmentations, all of your scripts are killed and you’ll have tore-run them. Doing this every time you install Augmentations would be very tedious and annoying,so you should write a script to automate the process. Here’s a simple example for astartup script. Feel free to adjust it to your liking.
// Array of all servers that don't need any ports opened// to gain root access. These have 16 GB of RAMvar servers0Port = ["sigma-cosmetics", "joesguns", "nectar-net", "hong-fang-tea", "harakiri-sushi"];// Array of all servers that only need 1 port opened// to gain root access. These have 32 GB of RAMvar servers1Port = ["neo-net", "zer0", "max-hardware", "iron-gym"];// Copy our scripts onto each server that requires 0 ports// to gain root access. Then use nuke() to gain admin access and// run the scripts.for (var i = 0; i < servers0Port.length; ++i) { var serv = servers0Port[i]; scp("early-hack-template.script", serv); nuke(serv); exec("early-hack-template.script", serv, 6);}// Wait until we acquire the "BruteSSH.exe" programwhile (!fileExists("BruteSSH.exe")) { sleep(60000);}// Copy our scripts onto each server that requires 1 port// to gain root access. Then use brutessh() and nuke()// to gain admin access and run the scripts.for (var i = 0; i < servers1Port.length; ++i) { var serv = servers1Port[i]; scp("early-hack-template.script", serv); brutessh(serv); nuke(serv); exec("early-hack-template.script", serv, 12);}
Random Tips¶
- Early on in the game, it’s better to spend your money on upgrading RAM and purchasingnew servers rather than spending it on Augmentations
- The more money available on a server, the more effective the hack() andgrow() Netscript functions will be. This is because both of these functionsuse percentages rather than flat values. hack() steals a percentage of a server’stotal available money, and grow() increases a server’s money by X%.
- There is a limit to how much money can exist on a server. This value is different for eachserver. The getServerMaxMoney() function will tell you this maximum value.
- At this stage in the game, your combat stats (strength, defense, etc.) are not nearlyas useful as your hacking stat. Do not invest too much time or money into gaining combatstat exp.
- As a rule of thumb, your hacking target should be the server with highest max money that’srequired hacking level is under 1/3 of your hacking level.