Hi guys,

I need some help building an infected hacker
I used to know the Matrix rules really well for 3rd Ed, but i haven't fully read and understood it for 4th Ed yet.
I had hoped I could be an infected Technomancer, but alas that was shot down in my previous thread. http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=27524

So now i'm asking for more help.
I need to work out the minimum skill/equipment set i need to be an effective hacker.
I believe the only 2 skills i really need are Hacking and Electronic Warfare? I was planning on starting them at 6 and 4 respectively.

So i'm hoping that some kind soul will be able to point me to what i really need to pull off hacking.

I am attempting to do this without an implanted commlink or datajack... I was planning on hiding a trode set in some sort of headware. Now there used to be rules in 3rd ed where if you tried this you were alot slower in the matrix? Tortoise mode? I haven't read anything about that now, so i'm assuming that those rules have disappeared. Please correct me if i'm wrong though...

First job: define "effective hacker." What is the minimum you NEED to be able to do?

Second job: give parameters. Is cyberware ok? If so, you can grab skillwires 5 and use your activesoft+program, which will net you a decent dicepool with 0 expenditure of karma.

Comment: Computers is as necessary to be a competent hacker as Perception is to be a competent runner. It is your Intuition for matrix perception, and if you cannot see spiders/data bombs/Corrupt programs lurking in the code, you will be destroyed.

Equipment: The most vital 5 programs are probably Exploit, Analyze, Stealth, Browse and Decrypt. These will not get you through cybercombat and you will not be able to deal with data bombs, but if you can only take 5 programs, take these 5. The hardware you will need will be a high-rating commlink (System, Firewall and Response are all vital, get them to 5 minimum) and you'll probably do well to route your traffic through an anonymizing proxy server for 10nY a day, because you probably don't have the skills to clean up after yourself as hard as you'll need to.

No cyberware, I am looking at playing a Banshee, which has regeneration and I can't start with Deltaware as a starting character.

How do i define 'effective', i really don't know. I want to be the best hacker i can for the least amount of BP
Ideally what I want to do is that if we come across some security devices on a run, I need to be able to loop/disable them quickly.
I'm the only hacker in a group of 6. So i do need to be able to 'do' everything, but don't want to munchkin it up hugely. (I'm covering the munchkin by just being Infected)

The character concept is face/hacker that is working hard to hide the fact he is infected.

Am I correct that there are no penalties for not having the commlink/datajack implanted?

I think you can go with a trode net (core rulebook) and a sim module (from unwired) to be able to do VR and get 4 IP in VR, without implants.


One way to go if you do not want to use implants in your build would be to go the adept route. There are some pretty cool adept-powers for a matrix based characters such as Multi Tasking, Edicit Memory, Three dimesional memory, not the best maybe but cool and flaouvorful. Other things such as increased ability hacking and electronic warfare will make you more effective when utilizing your skills.