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The Pragmata hacking minigame is essential for dealing any significant damage to robots, but it's also a bit confusing at first, especially when you're under pressure from murderous robots. The basic gist is that you need to draw a path to the green square for a successful hack, but there are plenty of additional layers and special nodes to bear in mind, with more being added the further you get into Pragmata. It's a lot to consider in a combat scenario, so I've laid out everything you need to know about hacking in Pragmata below.
Pragmata hacking explained
To hack an enemy in Pragmata, you need to hold L2/LT and aim at the enemy. This will bring up the hacking matrix grid on the right side of your screen. You then need to move the cursor around the grid using the face buttons (Cross, Circle, Square, Triangle/ABXY) to reach the green EXE node to complete the hack.
If successful, the enemy will take a chunk of damage and will be temporarily 'Open', shown by their exposed glowing areas and the blue Open icon above their health bar. When an enemy is Open, they're vulnerable to gunfire from Hugh's weapons. It's therefore time to start blasting away, so focus on weak points and ideally get close to deal maximum damage!
It's also worth mentioning that if you stop aiming at an enemy mid-hack, your hack progress will be maintained if you then aim at the target again, letting you pick up when you left off – useful if you need to suddenly disengage to avoid an attack. However, taking damage will reset all hack progress.
Lastly, if you're fighting a group of enemies and want to make sure you hack the right one, you can press in the Left Stick while aiming to lock onto an enemy, preventing you from accidentally switching your hack to a different robot. You can find many more combat pointers and more in our Pragmata tips guide too.
Pragmata Hacking Nodes
While hacking in Pragmata you'll also notice plenty of other nodes on the grid, such as blue nodes and yellow nodes, which can affect your hacks in various ways if the cursor passes through them before reaching the green EXE node:
- Open Nodes (Blue): For each blue node you pass through before reaching EXE, the amount of damage that the hack deals and the duration of the target's Open state is increased – you can see the damage the hack will deal at the top of the grid. It's therefore always advisable to pass through as many blue nodes as possible for every hack!
- Hacking Nodes (Yellow): These yellow nodes come in lots of different types, each with their own effects such as damage boosts, life stealing, and immobilization. Passing through multiple yellow nodes of the same type during a hack improves the effect of that node, but each node also has a limited number of uses. Additionally, the effectiveness of a node is reduced if you use it on the same enemy more than once. You can get Hacking Nodes either by unlocking them in the Shelter and equipping them to your loadout, or by collecting them while exploring.
- Critical Shot Nodes (Purple): If you have the Critical Shot ability unlocked, a purple Critical Shot node has a chance of appearing when hacking an enemy on low health. Pass through this node during a successful hack and the affected enemy will collapse to the ground, letting you rush in and press R2/RT to deliver a deadly Critical Shot.
- Grey Nodes: The hacking cursor cannot cross these nodes, so you must go around them.
- Error Nodes (Red): If the cursor touches a red triangle node, Diana will be immediately booted out of the hack and briefly jammed. Avoid these nodes!
Obviously, the trade-off with these is that trying to draw a path that passes through as many special nodes as possible will require a lot more thought as you can't overlap, and it will take longer, all while in the heat of combat. With that said, the bonuses they offer tend to be worth it, so make sure you move and dodge as you hack to avoid harm!
Pragmata Overdrive Protocol and Hacking Gauge
During Pragmata's first boss fight, you'll be introduced to Diana's Overdrive Protocol ability. When activated by clicking in both controller sticks, Diana releases a hacking pulse that Opens, damages, and briefly stuns all nearby enemies. It's great to use during boss fights and when combat encounters featuring many enemies get a bit hectic.
Overdrive Protocol is tied to Diana's Hacking Gauge in the bottom-left corner of the screen, which is the segmented ring next to Hugh's health bar. Every successful hack fills the gauge a little, and when the gauge is full you can use Overdrive Protocol, which then resets the gauge.
You can spend your Lunafilament on Overdrive and Hacking Gauge upgrades at the Shelter's Unit Printer too, as well as other Pragmata resources. Overdrive upgrades improve the overall effectiveness of the ability, while Hacking Gauge upgrades increase the amount the gauge fills per hack, making Overdrive Protocol much easier to get. You can also expand the gauge by finding rare Storage Expander upgrades for Diana.
Even later in the game you can unlock the Auto-hacking ability, which allows you to press the Right Stick while aiming to spend a bit of Diana's Hacking Gauge and automatically complete hacks for you.
Pragmata Hacking Modes
Once you reach Shelter level 2, you'll unlock your first Hacking Mode chip. Equip one of these to your loadout and it'll trigger unique effects when hacking an enemy that is already Open – you'll know your mode is engaged if the hacking matrix is yellow instead of white!
For example, Offense Mode turns blue Open nodes into offensive nodes that increase the damage of your next hack, but you'll unlock even more mode chips as you progress. Each one you unlock can be slotting into your loadout before heading out on the tram - I'm personally a big fan of the Combust mode as it helps you overheat enemies for easy critical hits!
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