Cracking crime
What TornLife's research has established about Cracking crime, and the questions players asked about it.
What TornLife has verified
- Torn staff (CloudJumper) confirmed that resetting crime skill and losing large amounts of crime experience on a critical failure in Cracking is intended behaviour, not a bug, and occurs when a player attempts crimes too difficult for their current crime experience; the recommended fix is to build up crime exp on easier crimes first. (confirmed by Torn; cracking crime skill resetting, )
- The wiki lists rig components: CPU (70W, 30,000 MIPS, high heat), eCPU (30W, 25,000 MIPS, low heat, limited overclocking), HPCPU (150W, 50,000 MIPS, very high heat, enhanced overclocking), Computer Fan (5W, broad cooling), Water Block (moderate cooling in confined area), Heat Sink (cools directly adjacent components), PSU (750W, moderate heat). (documented; Cracking › Brute-Forcing › Rig (1/2), )
- Chassis unlock at Cracking skill 25 (a 5x5 array), 50 and 75. Every component uses one slot except PSUs, which use two and can be rotated. Components work across the whole rig, so PSUs and CPUs may sit in different chassis, but heat stays within its own chassis. (documented; Cracking › Brute-Forcing › Rig (1/2), )
- A rig comes online only with a power supply and at least 100,000 MIPS. Extra MIPS raise brute-forcing strength logarithmically, with diminishing returns. The default computer or laptop has strength 1. (documented; Cracking › Brute-Forcing › Rig (1/2), )
- Education: CMT2570 Fundamentals Of Computer Architecture cuts rig heat by 25%. CMT2128 Overclocking unlocks overclocking up to 30%, CMT2129 Advanced Overclocking up to 50%. Overclocking raises CPU power use and heat proportionally, not fan power or PSU heat. eCPUs gain less MIPS than HPCPUs. (documented; Cracking › Brute-Forcing › Rig (2/2), )
- Brute-forcing costs seven nerve and reveals one character or breaks one encryption layer. Cracking costs five nerve, needs all characters revealed, and pays money. A critical failure when cracking loses the job and may mean jail of 3 hours 16 minutes to 6 hours 23 minutes. (documented; Cracking › Brute-Forcing, )
- Cracking needs the CMT1520 Introduction To Computing course and a computer. It has 28 target types. Jobs spawn daily at midnight TCT, 7-26 per day, shared across players. Passwords are 4-10 characters with 1-9 encryption layers on advanced targets. Up to three wrong guesses are allowed. The enhancer is the Office Chair. There are no unique outcomes. (documented; Cracking, )
- Cracking honor bars: level 100 in Cracking, and guessing 250 password characters. (documented; Crimes 2.0 › Crimes › Cracking, )
- Heat rises after each brute-force attempt. Cooling removes heat within the chassis, so placement matters. Heat Sinks and Water Blocks cannot overheat. A component at 100% stops working until it falls below 100%. Components cannot be removed above 50% heat. Heat decays 1% per 60 seconds and can reach 150%, taking 2hrs 30min to decay. (documented; Cracking › Brute-Forcing › Rig (2/2), )
- Removed components keep their heat in the slot, and that heat carries over to a new component put there. (documented; Cracking › Brute-Forcing › Rig (2/2), )
- Uncracked targets with progress roll over to the next day with no limit and no expiry. Rewards depend on the targeted service; passwords and layers depend on target type. (documented; Cracking › Targets, )
- Unencrypted target rewards: Colleague, exes, Online Adversary and Romantic Interest $10,000-30,000; Friend and Neighbour $10,000-25,000; Informant and Juror $30,000-50,000; Doctor (skill 30) $35,000-140,000; Judge (skill 30) $40,000-99,600. (documented; Cracking › Targets › Unencrypted, )
- The developer announcement describes Cracking as Torn's 10th crime and the first Cybercrime of Crimes 2.0, where players crack passwords for clients. Targets use 'ICE' (Individual Character Encryption), where each character is encrypted separately, which reveals password length and makes each character vulnerable to brute-force. (confirmed by Torn; Crimes 2.0 : Cracking, )
- At launch, additional targets with more advanced passwords and encryption levels unlock as skill increases; players can brute-force characters or guess obscured characters that lack encryption layers, with up to three incorrect guesses allowed per password before lockout. (confirmed by Torn; Crimes 2.0 : Cracking, )
- Players can initially only use their Computer or Laptop for cracking; the first of three rig chassis becomes available at level 25. Chassis take CPU and cooling components to raise MIPS, which increases brute-forcing strength and the characters revealed per cycle. PSUs are needed to power components. (confirmed by Torn; Crimes 2.0 : Cracking, )
- Players start building a rig once they reach 25 skill in cracking, confirmed directly by Torn staff in response to a player question about when the rig feature becomes available. (confirmed by Torn; Rigs, )
- Torn staff fixed a bug so that crime progress is now saved even when a cracking attempt fails, implying that prior to this fix, progress toward a password could be lost on a failed attempt. (confirmed by Torn; Cracking crimes 2.0 issue wrong progress status, )
- A staff member confirmed that without an unlocked rig, brute-forcing strength is fixed at 1.0000 and a single brute-force attempt can only ever reveal one character, regardless of other factors; a player reporting three characters revealed per attempt had simply made multiple prior attempts on the same target. (confirmed by Torn; Cracking flavour text wrong?, )
- Under Crimes 2.0, every crime attempt (including Cracking) resolves to Success (cash/items plus CE and CS), Fail (no reward, no CE/CS loss), or Critical Fail (significant CE/CS loss, possibly dropping a whole skill level, plus chance of jail time, life loss, hospital time, item/money loss, or crime-specific penalties like losing card details in Card Skimming). (documented; Crimes 2.0 › Introduction › Outcomes, )
- Torn staff confirmed and fixed a bug in January 2024 where the number of characters actually revealed by a brute-force attempt did not match what the rig's Brute Forcing Strength (BFS) should have guaranteed, traced to overclocking not applying correctly to the BFS calculation. (confirmed by Torn; Incorrect # Characters Brute Forced vs. BFS?, )
Questions about Cracking crime
- What is a good cracking crime rig setup in Torn?
No single official best rig exists. Community layouts from 2024 range from a cheap low-heat build (PSU x1, CPU x2, eCPU x22, Computer Fan x1, 29 uses…
Crimes ·