Ingress: Portal Burn Out
So you probably burned out a key Portal for your advance at least once. I did it a lot and then used all that data to decode logic behind it, and here is how to not burn them out!
So, when you hack a portal, portal goes to Cool Down period. That period is exactly 5 minutes or 300s. If you try to hack it before that period it will send you error message with additional time that you should wait to hack again. If you hack portal more than four times in the range of 4 hours it will go out to Burned Out state! Oh NO what I have done… but wait, there are tricks to it too.
First off, when Ingress portal go to Burn Out state it will stay like that until end of that 4 hour cycle. So if you burned it out close to end of that cycle, portal will be back soon. If you are too pushy it will be burn out for almost all cycle. We are still not sure if cycle starts with your first hack, or the day is already divided on 6 cycles x 4 hours. We will update this info when we decode its logic.
TIP: A WRONG STRATEGY! Lot of players are burning out portals intentionally, so that other players can’t hack it. This is wrong! Portal is burned out only for you, so there is no point in doing so. After all you are using your precious exotic matter (XM). So this is a bad strategy, and avoid doing it!
Bojan Cincur
Latest posts by Bojan Cincur (see all)
- Passcode 01 – May 17 - May 17, 2013
- Book: The Niantic Project: Ingress on Google Play and Amazon - May 17, 2013
- INGRESS REPORT | Asian Agents Tip Global Control – EP8 - May 17, 2013
Did you ever figure out if the cycle is fixed or begins with the first hack?
It begins with the first hack!
Good to know, so I guess if you are sitting next to a portal all day, the best way to hack would be once an hour ;)
It really shouldn’t matter – no matter how often you hack it you will still have to wait four hours from the first hack.
Hack it once an hour = 1 hack an hour
Hack it four times and wait the rest of the time = 1 hack an hour
Is there some other advantage to waiting that I’m not aware of? I reckon hacking them quickly is more effective since you can then spend the rest of the time doing whatever you want wherever you want instead of micromanaging your hacking.
so is it quicker/better to hack a portal 4 times quickly (20min) then come back after the 4 hours is up?
what is a better to stay there and Hack it every hour?
Actually, it’s 15 minutes:
(hack)-5 minutes-(hack)-5 minutes-(hack)-5 minutes-(hack)(speed away)
Definitely starts with the first hack. I even wrote an Android app to record my hacks and notify me whenever the 4 hours window is done and it works well !
Thanks for the tip
Feel like sharing your app with the rest of the class?
We find that burning out the portals quickly and then returning 4 hours later yields bigger drops on the post burnout farming if it is within the same 24 hr period.
Stats?