How to Hack Chips and Access Points in Cyberpunk 2077

During your playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, you will encounter chips and access points that need to be hacked through a mini-game, the rules of which are not explained in enough detail. Players may also find themselves confused about where the chips they find are stored. In this guide, we will explain the hacking mechanics and also advise on where to find the electronic records that need to be hacked.

Often, during missions and exploring the world, you will find encrypted chips. Many players may struggle with how to even find them in the game's interface. To find a chip, you need to open the following menu:

Hover over the «Journal» item and select «Shards» in the submenu. This will open a menu with all the electronic records you have found, including the encrypted chips. If you are more interested in the explanation of the hacking process itself, keep reading our text.

Initially, the hacking process may seem confusing, and the game does a poor job of explaining this mechanic. Through trial and error, we have figured out how the hacking of chips and access points works. If you also want to understand the hacking mechanics, first take a look at the mini-game window:

To make it clearer, we will show the input window after completing the mini-game:

Note that in these four numbers, you can see all three sequences — «55-1С» and two «1С-BD-1C». For instance, if there was a «BD» between the sets of symbols in the input window for the sequence «55-1С», we would not have received the reward. That is, you need to not only place all the symbols from the combination in the input window but also maintain their strict order.

Keep in mind that the sequences and the table are generated randomly. And it's not always generated in a way that allows you to collect all rewards. However, you can close the access point or chip and try to hack it again. In this case, you will get a completely different table and sequences.

This means you need to study the table and combinations in advance and immediately track which rewards you can receive. To make it even clearer how the mechanics work, we decided to show an example of the hack that occurred in the very first picture, as the sequences fell in such a way that we could enter all of them into the input window. It remained only to understand if we were able to press all four sets of symbols on the matrix. We were also lucky with this, and we entered the symbols in the following order:

The easiest way to present data entry is in four steps, in which you can track how the sequence window changes.

We press on «55». As a result, the sequence window will look as follows:

From the window, we can understand that we have started entering the first sequence. The other two do not contain the number «55», so the mini-game will suggest entering them from the second step. That means we still have a chance to enter these two sequences. Therefore, if on the second step we choose something other than «1C», in the end, the 2nd and 3rd combinations will fail, and you will not receive a reward, as you simply will not be able to enter these sequences on the 3rd and 4th step. The first combination will also be interrupted. But since it consists of two sets of symbols, you will still have a chance to enter it in the last two steps, if the table allows it.

We press on «1C». As a result, the sequence window will look like this:

As we can see, the first combination is completed and we received a reward for it. We also started entering the second and third sequence. The «1C» symbols turned out to be useful for all three combinations! Therefore, it's important to determine in advance how the sequences will shift.

We press on «BD»:

Here everything is crystal clear — we successfully continued the 2nd and 3rd combination.

By pressing on «1C», we completed the 2nd and 3rd combination:

After this, we received all available rewards. If after all the information presented you still have questions about hacking in Cyberpunk 2077, ask us in the comments. Next, we will reveal a few nuances about hacking.

First, let's analyze how much the reward varies depending on the sequence closed. We tried closing each of the three combinations separately 10 times to compile tables that can give a slight idea of the difference in rewards depending on the sequence. It's worth noting that the amount of experience gained does not depend on the combination entered. The number of Eurodollars depends on the sequence, but the amount of money is not generated randomly. However, the quantity of script components is determined by randomness and the closed sequence.

Rewards for 10 successful inputs of the first (worst) sequence:

As we can see, the player will receive a decent amount of uncommon and rare script components. Also, there is a chance to receive an epic component.

Rewards for 10 successful inputs of the second sequence:

The loot for the second sequence significantly surpasses the amount of components for the first combination. Also, there is a chance to receive a legendary component.

Rewards for 10 successful inputs of the third (best) sequence:

The most profitable combination in all component categories, and legendary script parts can be obtained with a high probability.

Note: We tried hacking several access points in different areas and acts of the story campaign. Sometimes the amount of Eurodollars received varies significantly, as does the experience points. The number of script components was roughly the same at all points. However, we do not claim that this rule applies to the entire game. It's possible that some locations have differences in the components received.

Should you hack all three sequences? From our experience, we noticed that very rarely are the combinations and symbols in the table generated in such a way that the player can complete the hack for all three rewards. Therefore, if the player does not have the necessary abilities to simplify hacking, it is best to try to complete the mini-game for the second and third sequence. For all three, you will likely have to search for the necessary generation of combinations and codes for a long time.

Honestly, the difference is not felt. Perhaps, if an experiment is conducted with a hundred runs on different combinations, the difference might be noticeable. But most likely, either the difference will be insignificant, or it won't be there at all. We think that paying attention to the length of the sequence is not worth it, as it will not bring significant benefits.

No, you will receive as much experience and Eurodollars as after the first successful hacking attempt. The distribution of script components is also not affected by failing the mini-game.