Operator Briefing Index
The manual is sorted like a board read: first learn how to enter clean, then how to survive a live line, then how to profit, grow, and read the wider network. If you are new, start with Entry Protocols and Line Survival before anything else.
What is NOD//Xtract?
NOD//Xtract is a browser-based extraction roguelike set in a living hacker network. You play as an operator who breaks into high-security systems, steals data, and escapes before the system traces your connection back to you. Each run is procedural, but the world around those runs is persistent and shared: operators affect the same targets, the same market, and the same network conditions you do.
What should I look at first in the Safehouse?
Start with Status. That tab is the current command board: live events, weekly objectives, dispatches, optional Operator Briefings, and any strange global broadcasts. After that, move to Prepare to pick your target and loadout. Status tells you what matters today. Prepare is where you commit.
What are Operator Briefings?
Operator Briefings are optional system primers that appear after you have started learning the basic run loop. They explain rigs, upgrades, factions, contracts, crafting, Remote Ops, and Understack in short chunks. They are not required, and they only give tiny one-time rewards so guidance does not become a new economy faucet.
How do I start my first run?
From Prepare, choose a target rated SEC 1-3, pick a rig, allocate tools if you have them, and hit Initiate Infiltration. Tool-less runs are allowed, but they are much higher risk, so early on a modest clean extraction is worth more than forcing a deep line and losing everything. The starter rig exists to help you learn the board safely.
What is the difference between Trace and Bandwidth?
Trace is how much the target system knows about you. Reach 100 and the run burns instantly. Bandwidth is connection stability. Reach zero and the line collapses under you. Trace is detection pressure. Bandwidth is oxygen. Strong runs budget both.
Why did my run fail?
Usually one of three reasons: trace hit 100, bandwidth hit 0, or a trap node landed before you recovered. Failure is part of the design loop. The correct response is not always to push harder. Often it is to extract earlier.
Why do some targets feel harder than others?
Security level drives baseline danger, pressure raises live risk when a target is being hammered, and depletion cuts reward quality after repeated hits. A target with high SEC, high pressure, and weak loot quality is not just "unlucky" - it is a bad board state.
Can I lose my progress permanently?
Almost never. Failed runs cost you the payload from that run, not your overall operator. Credits, standings, ghost rating, and most progression remain intact. The main durable loss to respect is rig durability on craftable rigs. If you keep sending a damaged rig into bad deployments, it can break for good.
Why is my data worth less than it was?
Value resolves in layers. A packet has an intrinsic value, quality permanently adjusts that value, HOT timing decides whether it sells at full value or 85%, and then market demand applies the final pressure. When operators dump too much of one data type in a short window, that last market-demand layer drops to 90% until the window clears.
What is hot data?
Freshly extracted data keeps a hot multiplier for 90 minutes. During that window it sells for full value. After that it goes cold and drops to 85%. The timer is attached to each packet, not to your current session, so sale timing matters.
What are Fragments?
Fragments are run-earned progression currency. They do not come from selling data. You get them from successful extractions, especially deeper or more valuable ones, and they are used with credits to buy blueprints and craft stronger gear.
What are Exploit Parts and Cold Data for?
Exploit Parts come from surviving trap situations during successful extractions. Cold Data comes from deeper classified pulls. Both are advanced crafting materials used by stronger blueprints and later upgrade paths.
What is the Black Cache Exchange?
Black Cache Exchange is a Market broker that converts spare Fragments, Cold Data, and Exploit Parts into randomized sellable data packets. It is not a guaranteed profit button: each recipe has different costs, output types, and broker tags. A clean or pristine roll can pay nicely. A corrupted or blacklisted roll is still sellable, but less impressive. Use it when you have rare materials sitting idle or when you want to gamble resources into liquid data.
What are Remote Operations?
Remote Operations let you deploy paid bot units into live targets from the Safehouse. They are not passive income. You spend credits and materials up front, wait for the operation to finish, then claim a delayed result that can succeed, fail, or return only partial value. Think of them as a controlled sink with upside, not a replacement for active runs.
How do I unlock better tools and rigs?
Through blueprints. Buy them in the Market, then build them in Crafting. Higher-tier gear can ask for faction standing, fragments, Exploit Parts, or Cold Data in addition to credits. The point is not raw linear power - it is deliberate operator shaping.
What are factions and why do they matter?
Factions track how you operate. Cyber Syndicate likes aggressive value extraction. Corporate Security rewards cleaner, lower-trace work. Rogue AI favors trap survival and disruptive play. Standing unlocks contracts, blueprints, and later passive advantages. You are not meant to max every lane at once.
What is Ghost Rating?
Ghost Rating is your cumulative operator reputation. It rises with runs, reflects how much board work you have done, and also scales some costs like pre-run spending. It is less about a single clean run and more about proven operational history.
What happens after 10 runs?
You choose an operator discipline. That is a permanent specialization that shapes your passive bonuses going forward: stealth-focused, extraction-focused, or sabotage-focused. It is meant to become part of your identity, not just another checkbox.
How do I unlock Remote Ops?
Remote Ops are gated behind Safehouse upgrades. Buy Remote Relay in Upgrades to unlock the system at all. Then buy Relay Expansion I and Relay Expansion II to raise your relay tier and allow more remote slots. Your final slot count is still capped by Ghost Rating, so infrastructure and reputation both matter.
Is this multiplayer?
Not in the direct co-op sense, but the world is shared. Operators hit the same targets, alter pressure, move market prices, and leave traces for others to read. You are playing alone inside each run, but never in isolation from the board.
What are world events?
The network generates timed conditions based on overall activity. Targets can go HOT or COLD, and larger windows can tilt the whole board toward cleaner ghost play, extraction spikes, or chaos. If Status feels unusually loud, that is because the network really is shifting.
What should I check when I log in?
Open Status first. That is where dispatches, weekly objectives, live event pressure, and global broadcasts stack together. It is the fastest way to catch a good window before you spend credits, choose a target, or commit a rig.
What do the Safehouse tabs do now?
Status is the board read and optional guidance surface. Prepare is target, rig, tools, and pre-run spending. Understack is long-form descent mode and shard progression. Remote Ops holds delayed bot deployments once your relay is online. Upgrades handles permanent operator systems like relays, scanners, and recovery layers. Intel holds deeper network reads once unlocked.
What are Priority Dispatches, Weekly Objectives, and Upgrades?
Priority Dispatches are time-sensitive high-value jobs. Weekly Objectives are rotating medium-term goals with claimable rewards. Upgrades improve your whole operation rather than a single item, unlocking stronger intel, better safety nets, and long-term quality-of-life edges.
Do Remote Ops replace infiltration runs?
No. Remote Ops are intentionally weaker than live infiltration in raw efficiency. They are slower, riskier in aggregate value, and meant to convert spare resources into tension, delayed outcomes, and the occasional interesting find. If you want the best money and the cleanest control over risk, you still have to run the line yourself.