M1 - Hunting the Hacker is a main mission in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the first to take place in Hengsha.
Primary objectives[]
Investigate the penthouse apartment[]
This mission requires you to infiltrate an apartment complex in lockdown by Belltower Securities. There are quite a few options to get in:
- Run in through the front door. (aka: the old-fashioned way)
- Note: there are 6-7 guards in the courtyard and on the street outside. They won't be happy. Also, there's a special eBook located in a locked apartment just to the left of the main entrance.
- Use the various ducts at the side of the building to sneak up to the front door via the courtyard apartments.
- Climb to the roof.
- You can get on the roof by climbing the scaffolding on the street beside the apartments, or by jumping from the other rooftops.
- From the roof, there are two options:
- Break into the hallway leading to the elevator shaft by hacking or punching through the wall. The elevator shaft is accessible via a vent. A Praxis kit can be found at the bottom of the shaft. A vent at the top leads to the top floor.
- An emergency exit door on the far side of the roof leads inside. There are two guards on the roof to be dealt with before you can reach it. From there, you can walk downstairs and call the elevator. It takes you directly to the top floor.
The hacker's apartment is on the top floor. In the hallway are three guards, plus three in the Dutchman's suite. The apartment can be entered either through the hallway, or through a vent.
This section is completed by hacking the computer inside a secret room. Access can be gained to it either through the hole in the wall that is already blown open (a small fire around the opening notes the locale) or via the secret button in the kitchen area.
Note: On the kitchen counter is a teddy bear that opens a secret door when pressed. This gives you no extra experience points.
Get inside the Hive nightclub[]
This leads Jensen to Tong Si Hung at The Hive. You can enter in one of three ways.
- There is a sewer entrance but the way is blocked by poison gas. A valve to turn off the gas can be found behind a breakable wall (5 Nuke Viruses are also found here), or players with the appropriate lung augmentation can simply pass through.
- The second entrance is through a duct located at the back of The Hive's building.
- Finally, you can enter through the front. This can be accomplished by:
- Bribing the bouncer (1000 credits),
- Possessing a Hive VIP passcard, which can be found at the Hung Hua Hotel (Card located at level 3 - first room),
- Or simply taking him down. This will raise no alarm, as the Hive isn't patrolled by Belltower.
Find and speak with Tong Si Hung[]
Once inside, talk to the barman on the first floor who will instruct you to head upstairs to the VIP section and speak with the other barman. This conversation starts the social minigame. Win this and you will be allowed to speak to Tong, who will give you the Dutchman's location.
For those who choose to sneak, a password to one of the doors leading to the basement and Tong's office can be found in the first stall of the men's bathroom. You can also find a weapon upgrade in the basement near a tortured man.
If you exit the Hive, you can pick up another sidequest at the bar. Entering the Dutchman's building will also trigger the third sidequest.
Alternately, you can skip the social mini game by entering the vent in the basement that leads over Tong's office. This will lead to a cutscene. This can still be done if you fail the social mini game. A Ghost bonus is possible to achieve when choosing to eavesdrop stealthily, unlike the option of persuading Tong to tell the whereabouts of Arie.
Experience gains differ based on the path taken:
- Convincing Tong to meet Adam and share the information about van Bruggen awards 1000 XP after winning the game of coercion and 1000 XP after revealing the location.
- Taking a stealthy approach and making a little eavesdropping awards 750 XP when revealing the location and a possible "Ghost" bonus of 500 XP. However, in this case the door to Tong's room remains locked, making an eBook inside unreachable.
A sidequest at the bar becomes available regardless of the approach.
Meet van Bruggen in the Alice Garden pods[]
Arie van Bruggen is located in Pod 301. Sadly, you cannot simply go directly to him; his pod will remain shut if you do. You must go to the Hive to trigger him first. When you first speak to him, he will tell you that the information you need is located in Tai Yong Medical. Van Bruggen can help you get access, but first you must locate a Tai Yong Medical personnel pass. This pass can be found at The Hung Hua Hotel, where a customer has left it on a table in the room at the far end of Level 4. Alternatively, if you have already picked up the pass, the next cut scene will automatically trigger. After you have given van Bruggen the pass, Belltower soldiers will storm the Alice Garden Pods.
Trivia[]
The pods around Arie van Bruggen look a little odd. On closer inspection, professional system administrators will realize that "the hacker" has rented out 7 pods adjacent to him and filled every square inch with server hardware, plus network switches, and then cabled a backbone into his own pod.