The common opinion (at least what I have read on the internet) how Glyph Hacking works is that it gives you ‘bonus hacks’. Looking at some historical data it seemed to me all is a little bit more complicated. I therefore went out to gather some data myself. But there was one big problem – I’m really bad at Glyph hacking.
To generate a base line for added items per correct glyph, I decided to deliberately do failed glyph hacks. I memorised the first glyph in a sequence (lvl 2-8 portal) and then entered random sequences following that. This should give me the lowest possible bonus.
What I found surprised me – A LOT. I’m therefore reporting it here in case others know more or want to collaborate to gain a proper dataset. Maybe you even have one lying around.
First the complete raw data below (screen shots available for each):
| Resonator | XMP | Other | Number | Comment |
| 1 | 1 | none | 34 | Likely missed a few |
| 1 | 1 | 1 key | 4 | |
| 1 | 1 | 1 key, 3R | 1 | |
| 1 | 1 | 1R | 2 | |
| 1 | 1 | 1US | 1 | |
| 1 | 1 | 2XMP | 2 | |
| 1 | 1 | 1 key, 1PC, 2XMP | 1 | Possibly not a failed hack |
Explaining the table: There is a total of 45 partial glyph hacks. In 100% of these cases I get at least 1 resonator and 1 XMP burster. This is only the data I did screenshots on. I might have done a few more – but none of them missed a resonator or a burster.
I should add that I also got the guaranteed 1R, 1XMP on enemy portals. I’m not sure how many agents are aware that you have a guaranteed resonator drop on portals of your faction – but that you only get resonators in around 50% of cases on enemy portals. XMP isn’t guaranteed on either portal with a drop rate of 1 or more around 70%.
Using normal distribution, I can tell from this relatively small dataset with a probability of at least 99% that the chance to get a resonator or a burster is a failed glyph hack is at least 95% if the chance is the same for both. I regard this as enough to claim as hypothesis that you are guaranteed at least 1R and 1XMP.
There is no way I can proof a 100% drop rate – but I’m confident enough to offer as reward a golden reddit medal for video evidence of a failed glyph hack without at least 1R and 1X.
This leads to what else did drop in addition – at that part looks abysmal:
| At least 1R, 1XMP | 45 | 100% |
| More then 1R, 1XMP | 11 | 24% |
| Keys | 6 | 13% |
| R | 3 | 7% |
| XMP | 3 | 7% |
| PC | 1 | 2% |
| US | 1 | 2% |
The good news – this allows even a crappy Glyph hacker to gain some additional items from a high level portal.
The bad news – I only got extra keys in 13% of all hacks. It is better to glyph hack lvl 1 or 2 portals and get it right then build up a portal to 5 and try to hack if you get most glyphs only partly right. I didn’t check my numbers – but I estimate that it is around 75% extra keys for a successful glyph hack on a lvl1 or lvl2 portal.
The number of other items is also abysmal. I’m not even sure if the single PowerCube I list is real or was an error doing the screen shot from a successful glyph hack. PC, shields, etc. are plentiful as bonus items if I hack lvl 1 portals.
Comparison to other data: Some readers likely will tell me – but this is meaningless – the dataset is way, way too small. So I compared it to the dataset of 4023 glyph hacks by Philip Kloppers. Not sure if that is still available publicly after the demise of Google+.
| Drops | Normal Hacks | Bonus Hacks |
| At least 1 R | 4002/4023 99.5% | 4023/4023 100% |
| At least 1 R (own faction) | 3968/3973 99.9% | 3973/3973 100% |
| At least 1 R (other faction) | 23/39 59% | 39/39 100% |
| At least 1 XMP | 2820/4023 70% | 4019/4023 99.9% |
| At least 1 XMP (own faction) | 2791/3973 70% | 3970/3973 99.9% |
| At least 1 XMP (other faction) | 26/39 67% | 38/39 97% |
What is striking here is the difference for resonators on enemy hacks which goes from 59% to 100%. I know just a small data set. But more importantly – the number of XMP for bonus hacks goes from 70% to 99.9%. 4 cases out of 4023 in my view are likely data entry errors. Even if they are not – that is close enough to 100% to declare it a certain drop.
Keep in mind – even 2 extra drops of 70% would only give you a 91% total drop chance, while 3 extra drops of 70% would be 97.3% which both is significantly different from the observed 99.9%. This high hit rate can not be explained if bonus drops have a different mechanic. It might be as little as 1 guaranteed R and 1 guaranteed XMP – but it isn’t the same as just extra n hacks.
One last note: There is still a display bug. Hacking a single glyph of the enemy faction yields as expected 150 AP, for the own factions this is only 50 AP.