Uplink

Alternate title: Uplink: Hacker Elite

Categories

• Low% (No Awards Bad Ending)

Play the game as normal until April 14. Get the email from ARC and accept their offer. As soon as you receive Revelation for the first mission, use it to complete the game as if you were doing GrandTour.

• 100% (10 Awards Bad Ending)

Follow the ARC missions, and accept Arunmor missions 2, 3 and 4 from the Mission List when they appear. Also complete Wargames and Mole...? before completing the game.

• ARC Completion

Complete the game following the ARC missions and receiving all five ARC awards.

• Arunmor Completion

Receive all five Arunmor awards. The run is complete when you receive the email congratulating you for completing CounterAttack.

Tricks

• Fast timer modes

Use the two fast timer modes at the top of the screen to advance time quickly. You can use this time to do tasks that aren't time sensitive, such as deleting and replying to emails, using servers with no security, completing the Wargames mission, and buying stuff.

• Button animations

Switch button animations off in the options to speed up your progression through menus.

• Keyboard shortcuts

As long as the mouse is still, use the Tab key to progress through forms. When not focused on anything, Tab will focus on the first text box. A number of screens can be skipped through using the Enter/Return key rather than clicking the button.

Strategies

• InterNIC

InterNIC should be the first server in your bounce. This is because it has no security and the admin password never changes. After every hack, delete the "Admin password" and "Bounce" logs to cover your tracks.

• Early money

If you need money to buy your first pieces of software early in the game, use the Contact option in the Mission List. If you like, you can try the "I want more money" option, but it doesn't work often. Use "I want all the money now", and accept the mission if the client accepts. If they don't, say "No thanks" and try again. "I want half the money now" has a higher chance of succeeding, but is normally slower in the long run as you need twice as many missions and have to deal with more emails later. You can abandon the missions later with minimal consequence.

• Minimum-equipment bank hack

You require 15,500c of software (Log Deleter v4, Password Breaker, Proxy Disable v5) to hack a bank. The earliest method to find a suitable target is to use "Trace a recent balance transfer" missions. Hack the provided account and look at the statements - the recipient in "Deposited [large sum] to [target]" is your new target. If you need a higher agent level to access that mission, get caught by the International Social Security Database and hack the account (transfer money to another account) they tell you about. Once you have a target, create a new account at the same bank, start Proxy Disable, hack the target, and transfer the cash. Make sure to delete the logs on both ends and at InterNIC.

• Mass-copying missions

You only need to copy a single file to complete mass-copy missions, though you won't receive much of the reward.

• Server takedown missions

If you have Revelation, use it instead of deleting everything and restarting. You need to copy it over, but even then it's significantly faster.

Mission-specific Strategies

• Wargames

In order to receive the award, you only need to access the map screen (by clicking on the empty area under the list). You can exit as soon as you see this screen.

• Mole...?

You only require the app and one data file. The two-week timer before you are contacted starts when you open the app - the data file does not need to be decrypted at this point to start the timer. When you copy the data to the file server, you only need that one data file to receive the award.