Drone can't hack exhausted portal

HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

I was is this location and hacked the portal up to exhaustion, after that my drone got recalled so I decided to drop it there in a nearby portal, since it's a far village, but now that I move it to the portal it can't hack.

Probably a rare situation but still might need a look.

I think the drone should hack it anyway. But does it still count as unique drone hacks?

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  • Working as intended. The Drone doesn't give you extra hacks on the portal. It allows you to hack a portal at range.

    If you put a CMH on the portal, you'll get 4 more hacks out of it per 4 hour period, but your in-person hacking, and drone hacking, use the same limits and timer.

  • InvestigateXMInvestigateXM ✭✭✭✭✭

    The drone can't hack if the portal is burned out via normal hacks, and it doesn't count as a unique drone hack as the hack doesn't complete, that is working as intended. What should be possible though is waiting out the normal 4 hour burnout and then hacking via drone again.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Lucky I was busy today and barely could use it with the speedboost today, because there's only 6 portals there (yet).

  • "Unique Drone Hacks" are not counted - at least not visibly recorded in the scanner.

    Drone stats shown to us include:

    "Unique Portals Drone Visited" - no hack is required to increment this counter. This fits with the Explorer stat which, despite saying hacks in the badge description, is incremented by (pretty much) any action that requires you to be within hacking range of the portal to complete it. In the list of stats, it is more accurately called "Unique Portals Visited", note the count is the same as the count for your Explorer badge.

    "Drone Hacks" - this is simply the number of times you have hacked through the drone. You could bounce back and forth between 2 portals and it would continue to increment every time.

    Since Explorer does not actually required a hack (and hasn't since before I started in 2016), and has recently been extended to include portal scans and your own submissions, I do not think it likely that "Unique Drone Hacks" will ever become a visible stat.

    So - the answer to your question "does it still count as unique drone hacks" is - no-one can tell and there is no reason to care. But if it is the first time your drone has visited the portal, it will count as a "Unique Portal Drone Visited" even though you have not hacked the portal through the drone. It will not count as a "Drone Hack" as you didn't hack.

    My drone stats currently sit at 2045 visited, but only 78 drone hacks - I have been focused on exploration with no desire to drop my hack/glyph point ratio by hacking P1s. I know others with thousands of drone hacks for a handful of unique visits as they have put their drone on a P8 farm and are using it for a gear boost while we are travel restricted.

  • edited February 2021

    "Unique Drone Hacks" are not counted - at least not visibly recorded in the scanner.

    This refers to the Unique Visits, a stat in the scanner.

    The answer to the OP's question is "No, if your hack fails, it doesn't count as a unique drone visit, or a drone hack." Drone's can't get a visit any other way but hacking.

  • kittysukittysu ✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    @Perringaiden If drones cannot get a visit any other way but hacking, perhaps you can explain how my stats were achieved:

    2092 unique drone visits

    78 drone hacks.

    My answer to the OP is accurate. All a drone needs to do to get a unique visit count is to move to a portal it has never been to before - try it (sometimes an app restart is required to update the count, but it will go up without a hack.)

  • TIL. I've never moved my drone without hacking the portal I landed on. Why would I?

  • kittysukittysu ✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    People play the drone a number of ways. Most people I know either don't bother with the drone or stick it on a P8 farm and use it to gather gear. I guess you fall into one of those categories.

    As I said in the first post you quoted - I use the drone for exploration, not gear. I have no desire to drop my glyph/hack ratio by hacking neutral portals for R1s and X1s that will just be recycled.

    A few months ago, I landed my drone in the London area, and through my drone I have been fascinated by portals I will likely never visit in real life. It's not Ingress as I started playing it - but I am still able to explore and learn about the world around me.

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