Hacking is the primary way to obtain items in Ingress.
Overview
Hacking occurs at Portals. To hack a Portal, the Portal must be in the Agent's area of influence. Tapping on the Portal will bring up the Portal menu on the Scanner. Selecting the 
'Hack'-button will initiate the Hack.
The Agent may also press and hold on the Portal, then swipe left to hack it or swipe down to hack without getting a Portal Key 
.
Hacking a friendly Portal will always give the Agent at least one Resonator 
. Hacking an enemy Portal will grant the Agent 100 AP, but the Portal has a chance to counterattack.
The Handbook available from the Scanner's menu states that friendly Portals "slightly bias for building, like Resonators and Portal Shields 
" and hostile Portals "will bias for attacking, like XMP Bursters 
and Ultra Strikes 
", confirming long-standing community studies that suggested that enemy Portals are more generous with XMP Bursters , and further expand on that.
Hacking may occasionally result in no items; this appears more likely on hostile Portals.
Medals
The following Medals can be earned by hacking Portals:
| Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Onyx |
|
|
|
|
|
| 2 000 | 10 000 | 30 000 | 100 000 | 200 000 |
The following Medals can be earned by hacking Portals via Dronenet:
| Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Onyx |
|
|
|
|
|
| 250 | 1 000 | 2 000 | 5 000 | 10 000 |
The following Medals can be earned by completing at least one Hack in consecutive 24 hours periods:
| Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Onyx |
|
|
|
|
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| 15 | 30 | 60 | 180 | 360 |
The following Medals can be earned by completing at least one physical (non-Drone) Hack for 7 consecutive days:
| Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Onyx |
|
|
|
|
|
| 2 | 4 | 8 | 30 | 60 |
Glyph Hacking
- Main article: Glyph Hacking
Glyph hacking is a special hacking operation that Agents can initiate to increase the Portal-Hack's output, accessible by pressing and holding the 'Hack'-button in the Portal menu, and swiping to the 
Glyph-button. This will cause a Glyph Sequence to be received and displayed on the Scanner, which the Agent must memorize and return as input in the right order as quickly as possible. Successfully Glyph hacking a Portal will award the Agent with bonus items and AP.
Cooldown
- Main article: Cooldown
After a successful Hack, a Portal cannot be hacked again for a certain period of time. The Portal has to "cooldown" before it is safe to hack again. Cooldown typically lasts 300 seconds (5 minutes) for neutral and aligned to the opposite Faction Portals, and 180 seconds (3 minutes) on Portals aligned to the Agents’ Faction, but can be lowered by installing a Heat Sink 
. The rarity of the Heat Sink determines the reduction in Cooldown, with rarer giving higher reductions. Installing a Heat Sink will immediately clear the Cooldown, no matter the rarity.
Burnout
- Main article: Burnout
After hacking or Glyph hacking a Portal a certain amount of times, the Portal will not be able to be hacked any more due to it burning out. This so called "Burnout", and lasts four hours after the first Hack. Usually, Burnout occurs if four Hacks are made within four hours, although the number of Hacks can be increased by installing Multi-Hacks 
and the Burnout counter can be reset altogether using Heat Sinks .