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When hacking a portal and total time on scene is not the first concern, is there a strategy for timing hacks to receive better/more items or extend the life of the portal? Does hacking it 3 times back-to-back as fast as it cools off work better, or would giving it 10 or 15 minutes between hacks let you get more goods if you had an hour or so to stay at it?
Also, does leaving the scene and returning later have a different effect than staying in range for the same period of time between hacks?
Update: This bug has been fixed.
Apparently it is a known bug, and the bug is that the resonator field is rotated 180 degrees. So for example, if you want to destroy a resonator at the top of the portal, go to the bottom of the portal and fire your xmp's.
I tested this out at lunch today (see attached photo), and it definitely helped. Some people were reporting that it changed so you have to be standing on the portal to do full damage, but I found the 180 degrees off to do more damage to resonators. It just seems like standing on the portal does more damage than standing on the resonator, because you're closer to the opposite side of the portal where the real damage spot is for now.
This question should be irrelevant now that they fixed the bug, but it was almost a week before it was fixed.
XM charge, portal level and nearby targets will determine whether to try hacking a portal before taking it down. Is it a high level portal that will zap you for lots of XM, and you might run out of XM before destroying it or have other targets to attend to? In this case, don't hack while unfriendly.
Otherwise, esp. for portals that need a lot of repositioning and you will take almost 5 mins to kill them, always hack before attacking. Followed by another hack after all deployments are done. Never hack when its neutral or has just 1 resonator, unless you're fond of L1 items ;)
Why would you claim all portals before hacking one? You get 4 hacks, one every 5 mins. It is better to work on burning out portals you captured earlier while you attack remaining targets, unless you plan to do 20+ mins of hacking at the end.
When initially claiming a portal, are there any strategies to have a better chance of walking away with keys when you're done?
See Is there a way to increase the odds of getting a portal key?
In the case of acquiring portals, remember that attacking a higher level portal before you capture it might give higher level items, but overall less chance of any items. Thus, I expect that for keys its better to hack after it is captured, if you have to choose between the two.
Best Answer
No, nothing you mentioned has an effect on a portal.
Example 1:
Example 2:
So if you have 15 (+ x) minutes, hack the portal 4 times and then leave, as there is nothing else to do for the next 4 hours.
Source: http://ingressfieldguide.com/content/faq