(UPLINK) SHUTING DOWN THE GLOBAL SYSTEM.


DISCLAIMER:

This doc was made by SplashKhat exclusivly for gamefaqs.com. any fan
(aka non-commercial) sites wanting to use it on their websites can do
so freely as long as it is kept in its entirety and not edited or sold.
any gaming questions should be directed to the message boards
(not to me) If you've a bit of a correction to make or a usefull tip
feel free to Email: SplashKhat@yahoo.com


Contents:

I.   Intro.
II.  Money Money
III. Power Playing
IV.  Special Missions
V.   The Last Hack



I. INTRO

  This doc is intended to get you through the uplink 'basic' missions
fast enough so that you have full opportunity to take part in the
'special' missions of this game. and perhaps give you that edge you'll
need for passing the final 'Revelation' Mission if you choose to accept
it. The FAITH or 'good' route to me sounded much less challenging so
Ive never bothered to play it fully. So hear then this advice to guide
you in your attemps to shut down the global system.

  The first time i played the game i tryed to just get myself the
ultimate system with extreme everything on it.. i got close before
i learned the hard way about banks and passive tracing. by that time
the whole episode about Revelation and Faith were nearly at its end.
and little did i know at the time but most of the games excitement
with it.

  Since then ive devised this plan, and have had all the gear and
qualifications neccessary with plenty of time to spare for those very
missions. so for your convience and learning pleasure here it is..



II.MONEY MONEY

Get the access # for the stock market from the Internic. bid on
companies that you take missions for with the words 'stop a rival
company' somewhere in the mission text. Their stocks are sure to
increse by the next month. keep an eye on the uplink news for hacks
against your investments though. the actual stock value does'nt change
until the new month starts so you have time to edit your shares as
needed. if you power play well. you wont have any cash to spend on
this nor the time to wait for that first month to pass. but it may be
handy while waiting for those l33t missions

If you need some quick cash for that next program try taking on extra
missions (even if you dont have the gear necessary to complete it)
and ask for half the cash in advance.



III. POWER PLAYING

Within a few hours you can have a fresh new agent in with the top 10
hackers and on your way to greater rewards. but you must have disipline
and experience.. if your unfimiliar with the game itself then this is
not yet for you.. read the game tutorial and pass the uplink training
mission. other mission walkthroughs have been covered extensivly on
various fan pages found on the Uplink homepage www.introversion.co.uk
and the gamefaqs.com forum

If this is your first time playing I recommend going about it as you
like and getting comfortable with the layout and process of the missions.
Without your own experience to understand from, this doc will do very
little for you.



1st.. SAVE YOUR EARNINGS!!!

dont buy programs that your not needing for your current missions.
a log deleter is'nt even neccesary until you start dealing with
goverment servers. in order to advance quickly the key is in what
your spending your cash on. use this as a basic guide. sometimes you
need something a bit different. every uplink agent plays differently
and the missions available are random. the very last thing to worry
about is upgrading your gateway. when your doing lv10 missions earning
20,000 per. new gateways and hardware is easy to come by.



2nd.. Game Progression.

if you've played the game before no programs are necessary for the
uplink test machine.. the first login never changes no matter how many
times you play..


A.

Sign up for any and all missions available to you.. if you lack the
agent rating try 'contacting' the client and then accepting the
mission in the private chat session. ive had 14 missions at once..
picking up multiples doesnt effect anything other then clutter your screen.

Not completing a mission does'nt seem to effect anything either. so
if you lack the skill/software to complete something dont give up on it.
ive had one sit there for about 2 months before i completeted it.
this may have neuromancer setbacks but its better then losing your agent
rating.

Your goal here is to try to clear out the full mission board
without advancing time. ive never done it but the discipline is in using
all your available time to the fullest. other hackers will pick up on
jobs as time passes meaning less opportunity and money for you.

These first missions available are simple delete/copy missions.

Buy a Password cracker. Trace tracker (your version of choice)
dictionary cracker is'nt neccessary.. its usefull for user accounts
in banks. but thats not needed until later and the downside is the
large space reqs. it'll work on some of the begining missions but not
all.

now use the servers available to you for a longer trace time..
if your fast enough you'll even keep your root access. double
check all your mission profiles for duplicate servers. this way you can
save time and complete serveral missions at once. multiple missions on
goverment servers should be easy to come by.



B.

the 3 next available missions by ease of difficulty from least
to greatest are:
global academics database
social security database
global criminal database

you'll need to buy in order:
-proxy disabler lv2
-log deleter(your choice although lv4 isnt that expensive and well
worth it).
-decryptor lv3 (buying less means taking more hack time which you
dont have.)
only the criminal database requires the decryptor.

social security and criminal records require lots of time so
head over on the internic and add every internal service machince
and bank that you can find.. you really need the extra time this will
provide you with. you can either do your hack with all the available
bounces or wait till later when you have some strong root access. but
later means less time you'll have to be prepared for the special missions


SECURE CONNECTIONS

The very next things you'll need to buy are the HUD connection analysis
and a monitor bypass lv5.

once you have them go around and visit a bundle of the internal service
machines (#'s are available at internic)
look for machines that have all 3 protections. (monitor, proxy, firewall)
you could buy a program that checks the security levels but its
not all that big a deal for a few extra seconds and a waste of cash since
your goal is to by the bypass lv5 for all of them anyway.
if you find one with less then all 3 its best to erase it from your map.
just use the monitor disable and hack the PW. dont 'proceed' but instead
just disconnect. do this around 5-13 times. These secure locations
will provide you with plenty of trace time.
Make sure when you bounce to use your simple servers first (such as
internic or uplink test machine) so that log deletion is easy.


C.

your next available missions will be deleting file servers and checking
bank records. file server copies are available but unless you want
to go back and fourth many times retrieving the large files with your
lack of storage space its not really worth it.

some of the file servers for deletion you'll find have proxy's and
firewalls that you cant yet disable.. so build up your cash until you
can buy the lv5 bypass for each. when deleting ALL files from a file
server do it from the usr directory on the machines console.
file deleter is too messy on the logs. on internal service machines the
admin section will have 'security' option where if you havent bought
a firewall bypass you can shut it down from here.

checking bank records are easy. you dont have to delete the logs from
the bank hacks (unless the mission calls for it)
cause your time may be tight.. just cover your tracks
further down the road. if you still dont have that monitor bypass heres
where that dictionary hack is handy in saving you time on the banks.
most user's have simple PW's, mainframes and high security places will
never be so dumb..
(btw goverment files do NOT always = high security)
hacking into the admin account to disable security is NOT an option
for a bank. and you probally dont have the gear yet to login as bank
admin anyway.

WARNING!! : if you have that monitor disable on when doing a bank hack.
and after you login you dont see a trace activated DO NOT think that
you are safe.. banks will always do a slow passive trace no matter what.
ive discovered it the hard way while trying to steal money from several
accounts. so dont linger longer then necessary and make it a habit to
use at least 4 secure machines to bounce through and cover your tracks
as usual. the actual process of hacking a bank is a hackers dream and
ill not disclose its secerets here cause knowing it without your own
efforts IMO destroys much of the games fun.


D.

Around this time you should have accumulated all 3 bypass programs.
The next step in missions only requires the voice analysis software.
So after that feel free now to upgrade your gateway as you like.

Keep working on the newer missions until you reach an uplink rating of
7. (access to difficultiy 10 missions)
This way there should'nt be any mission that is 'encrypted' to you any
longer and most standard missions already completed.

You can relax now and let time pass until tragedy strikes the #1 hacker.
This happens within the first few days of the second month, And marks
the begining of our fun.


IV. The Special Missions: A Breif Intro (And spoiler)

7 days after the #1 Agent is found dead. you'll get an email giving you
the # for the ARC mainframe. hack into it and look at the logs..
(Dont delete that email yet)
you'll see one that shows 'revelation file copied' just under it
you'll see two logs.. one connecting and the other disconnecting..
make a note of this ip address AND AND AND !!! the actual time of the log.

use your ip lookup program. (buy it if you havent already)
and hack into that machine.. again noteing the log and time
of the server bounce..

continue until you find a log with the exact TIME but no 'routed to'
entry.. use the log un-deleter on this and continue the trail..
many people have missed this small detail and missed out because of it.
This is and will be the only major game secret given away.

you'll eventually reach a personal machine.. log into it (dont worry
about a trace) and you'll get a PW screen with no user name..
Enter the password left for you from the same dead hacker email and voila..
your in and you now have your hands on the key to some of the 'special'
missions.

several days later you'll get an interesting email.. feel free to reply
without worry.. theres two ways you can play on from here.
One being the advancement of the Revelation virus and the other on the
side of the Faith anti-virus. that email is your key to both routes.
It is possible to follow the FAITH missions on your own from the uplink
mission board but this way saves the time in having to search for them.

There are more missions out there to be found and some even related to
the Revelation/Faith crisis that your not told about. but with your
solid gear, skill, and a bit of your own ingeneuity should be able to
find you some of them.



V.. THE LAST HACK.
The final bit of help that I can give is in preparing for that last
Revelation Mission.


CUTTING COMPETITION

Hopefully you've explored around on your own and discovered the 'Mole'
seceret mission. ive found it to be of great help in slowing the enemy
during this last mission.

You should be quite familar with 'removing' someone using the criminal
database.. so go ahead and take things into your own hands and clean out
the whole lot of them.. (you'll know what i mean) i found it odd here
that you can have the #1 hacker arested (or #2 if youve taken the spot)
and it makes some big headlines.. but should'nt he/she be already dead??

time may be limited, the Uplnk Agency probally knows that your working
for ARC at this point, but it should give you one advantage you'll need
to get revelation running at its full glory. the other is preperation..


STRIKE THE FIRST BLOW

before the final mission profile comes to you have your bounce points
already layed out and saved on the map screen. Choose your final targets
in advance and make sure that they all belong to different corporations.
You can bounce throgh servers already shut down but you cannot log onto
them.
You can also hack the voice ident screen on mainframes and log out leaving
it in the 'GRANTED' state when you return giving you that extra step ahead.
But i dont think the difficulty in breaking into a mainframe is taken
into account for your opponent, it may help in the virus spreading though.


THEROY

I think it may be possible to double back on a server thats been cleaned
and trace down your opponent during the final conflict. but 'removal' by
the criminal database takes 3 hours and you dont have that kind of time.
you might be able to switch his/her ip for your own but that as well takes
time. if it works it'll be well worth it but its only just theory and
considering a few other loopholes found in the game (like arresting the
dead and finding that social security documents them as still amongst the
living) it may not change anything at all.

After playing the FAITH missions you'll note that on the very
same final mission (in the other man's shoes) your enemy is caught and
locked up after only a few minutes so it may indeed be possible to
effectively counter and an ARC agent. even if it is I'll not say..

Im leaving this doc as is, where its purpose is to show you to the fun,
not ruin it.



ALTERNATE ROUTE TO 'WIN'

if you play the FAITH missions and just sit back and watch the show,
revelation will win. if you were curious to see what happens when
they do, and you were unable to do it yourself, heres your chance.



VI. Final Words.

Good luck my fellows. Dont hack so often that you dull your senses
to where you stop 'thinking' and become careless. Play Good music LOUD.
'Live Alone and free like a tree, But in the Brotherhood of
the forest'. Trust IS for the foolish. Keep your eyes, ears and mind
open but your mouth forever silent. and enjoy ^^