Hacker

Hacker

ARTICLE

GALLERY

HISTORY

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Hacker
Unlock Cost	5,500
Base Cost	$1,400
Base Selling Cost	$466
Role	Support
Placement	Ground
Placement Limit	2
Statistics
Base Damage	4
Damage Method	Single Multi-target (Level 2+)
Base Firerate	0.808
Base Range	11
Hidden Detection	Level 2+
Lead Detection	Level 0+ (Collision only)
Flying Detection	N/A
Immunities	Partial Debuff Partial Stun
Placement Footprint	Average (1.5)
Tooltips
A defensive tower that targets multiple enemies and applies slow to targets
Enemy attacked by Hacker will be hacked and turned into a friendly units[sic].
Enemies killed in Hacker's range will reward more cash at later levels.
Capable of detecting hidden enemies.

• Current
• Version 1

"Attacks multiple enemies with synapses, siphon cash, and clone towers/enemies! This feels.. illegal!?!"

―Store Description

"A mid-range AOE tower that's capable of sending back enemies, providing eco, and allowing the player to create copies of towers."

―Former Store Description

Description

The Hacker is a hardcore tower that hacks enemies, applying various effects to them. It can be purchased from the store for 5,500.

It damages enemies using synapses fired from its equipment, which starts off with a phone, then some sort of wrist gadget and in the bottom path, a laptop. These beams target a single enemy, dealing single target damage. Any enemy killed while the Hacker will have these effects applied to it:

1. First hack is Unit Conversion, unlocked at Level 0. When that enemy is killed, it will be converted into a hologram, but with reduced health. This hologram will function similarly to an unit, dealing damage to an enemy upon collision. The converted enemy will ignore defense and Tank of the enemy it is colliding with. If the converted enemy has defense, this defense will boost the damage it deals to other enemies. Bloated does also boost the health of such enemies. Boss enemies are completely unable to be converted into holograms.
   Enemy health is calculated using their max health and the tower's EV. Health is calculated as:
   ${\text{Max Health}}^{\text{EV}}$
2. Second hack is Wire Fraud, unlocked at Level 1. Enemies targeted by the Hacker will have their rewards on death or damage increased. This is a global boost, meaning everyone in the match receives the added income.
3. Third hack is Slowness. This applies a slowness effect to any enemy, as long as it is not a Boss enemy.

The Hacker also has an ability, Hologram Tower, which allows it to copy a tower. It can copy any tower on the map and place it down in any spot. This tower will last for a limited amount of time and disappear once the lifetime ends. The ability has a varying cost based on the total cost of the cloned tower. Hacker cannot clone other Hackers or itself.

The Hacker has hidden detection Level 2 from Level 0. It has a placement limit of two per player.

Upgrades

Level 1 - Upgraded Rig - $600
+3 Range 0.808 > 0.508 Firerate 7.5% Wire Fraud Sell Price changes to $666

Level 2 - Shady Business - $1,250
+2 Damage +Hidden Detection +1 Synapses 15% Slowness 0.6 > 0.65 Hologram EV 7.5% > 10% Wire Fraud Sell Price changes to $1,083

Level 3 - Teleportation Tech - $7,500
+1 Range +14 Damage 0.65 > 0.725 Hologram EV 7.5% > 10% Wire Fraud Creates a temporary hologram of the selected tower •90% Clone Cost •60 Hologram Lifetime Sell Price changes to $3,583

Level 4 - 5th Gen I9 3260590327 - $22,000
+1 Range 0.508 > 0.308 Firerate 15% > 20% Slowness 0.725 > 0.825 Hologram EV 10% > 12.5% Wire Fraud 60 > 75 Hologram Lifetime Sell Price changes to $10,916

• Top Path
• Bottom Path

Level 5 - Overclock - $63,500
+2.5 Range 0.308 > 0.108 Firerate -5 Damage +2 Synapses 20% > 15% Slowness 0.825 > 0.9 Hologram EV Sell Price changes to $32,083

Level 5 - Rug Pull - $48,000
+5 Range -2 Damage +1 Synapses 20% > 25% Slowness 12.5% > 20% Wire Fraud 90% > 65% Clone Cost 75 > 120 Hologram Lifetime Sell Price changes to $26,916

Ability

Hologram Tower
Level 3+ 60s Cooldown Clones a tower after the drone has selected via the ability. Cost varies based on the total cost of the tower and the Hacker's Level.

Stats Table

To see all the previous statistics of this tower, see the history page, while for the statistics without the Firerate Bug, visit the Firerate Bug page.

Neutral Stats
Level	Total Price	Damage	Firerate	Synapses	Range	Hologram EV	Slowness	Clone Cost	Hologram Lifetime	Wire Fraud	Unit Limit	Unit Send Cooldown	DPS	Cost Efficiency
0	$1,400	4	0.808	1	11	0.6	0%	N/A	N/A	N/A	1,000	0.1	4.95	$282.83
1	$2,000	4	0.508	2	14	0.6	0%	N/A	N/A	7.5%	1,000	0.1	7.87	$254.13
2	$3,250	6	0.508	2	14	0.65	15%	N/A	N/A	10%	1,000	0.1	11.81	$275.19
3	$10,750	20	0.508	2	15	0.725	15%	90%	60	10%	1,000	0.1	39.37	$273.05
4	$32,750	20	0.308	2	16	0.825	20%	90%	75	12.5%	1,000	0.1	64.94	$504.31

Top Stats
Level	Total Price	Damage	Firerate	Synapses	Range	Hologram EV	Slowness	Clone Cost	Hologram Lifetime	Wire Fraud	Unit Limit	Unit Send Cooldown	DPS	Cost Efficiency
5	$96,250	15	0.108	4	18.5	0.9	15%	90%	75	12.5%	1,000	0.1	138.89	$692.99

Bottom Stats
Level	Total Price	Damage	Firerate	Synapses	Range	Hologram EV	Slowness	Clone Cost	Hologram Lifetime	Wire Fraud	Unit Limit	Unit Send Cooldown	DPS	Cost Efficiency
5	$80,750	18	0.308	3	21	0.825	25%	65%	120	20%	1,000	0.1	58.44	$1,381.76

Skins

To see all the upgrades of a skin, see the gallery page.

Skin	Fallen	Triumphant
Rarity	Rare	Exclusive
Daily Store Cost	N/A	N/A
Obtained From	Mission Quests	First 50 Hidden Wave triumphs

Strategy

• Duplicate towers with low placement limits, such as the Engineer, DJ Booth or Gatling Gun for the most value.
  • Do note however that the cost for cloning these towers will be quite high, as the Hacker takes a percentage of the tower's total cost. This makes the bottom path ideal for this, as it has the cheapest costs and longest clone lifespans.
  • The DJ Booth can help by reducing tower costs, making them effectively cheaper to clone.
• The Hacker will convert any enemy it is targeting into a hologram, dealing collision damage to enemies.
  • Top path is preferred for this, as its high DPS, higher synapse count and stronger EV allows it to create stronger enemies.
  • This is most useful in modes where a large number of high health enemies are present, most preferably Polluted Wasteland II.
  • As enemies only need to be targeted by the Hacker to be converted, it is recommended to have towers with high DPS, such as the Accelerator, damage the enemies in order to convert them faster.
  • These enemies will bypass defense and Tank. However, they cannot damage Flying or Ghost enemies.
  • If an enemy has defense, that defense will boost how much damage they deal.
    • Because of this, defense dropping towers are not a great match with the Hacker. While they will make converting enemies faster, they will also reduce the damage dealt.
• Certain enemies will not use their abilities on death when converted until their converted version is killed. However, the effects from these abilities will be purely visual.
  • This makes the Hacker quite useful in gamemodes where such enemies appear quite often. For example, in Fallen mode, the Hacker will negate the effects of on death abilities from the Fallen Jester and Necrotic Skeleton, making them weaker.
  • This does not apply to every enemy, however. For example, when the Splitter is converted, the Lower Body will get converted but the Split will still spawn from it.
• The Hacker can be used to slow down enemies, making it easier to kill them.
  • Bottom path is best for this, as it has a far better slowness than top path.
  • Only Boss enemies are immune to this slowdown.
• The Hacker can be used to boost cash gained from enemies, allowing for easier cash generation.
  • Bottom path is best for this, as it boosts the cash gained far more than top path.
• To use Hacker's high potential for dealing with crowds, set each two Hackers targeting to Last and First.

Trivia

• The Hacker Level 4 upgrade name is a reference to the Intel Core i9 processor.
  • The string of numbers "3260590327" is the Place ID of Tower Defense Simulator on Roblox.
• The Hacker was teased all the way back in 2020, but did not make an appearance until the 11th of June 2025 in v1.67.0.

Update History

For previous cosmetic variations, see the gallery page.

• 11 June 2025 - v1.67.0
  • Hacker added.
  • Bug: Hacker visually appears to cost coins instead of gems.
  • Bug: Hacker sometimes would not target enemies in Hardcore mode, causing them to be stuck in place with zero base health.
  • Bug: Flying and Ghost enemies converted by the Hacker deal insanely high DPS to ground enemies.
  • Bug: When the Hacker kills an enemy in Hardcore mode, there is a chance the wave will be skipped instantly.
  • Bug: Hacker is immune to stuns.
  • Bug: Hacker is immune to debuffs from older legacy enemies.
  • Bug: Hacker is immune to being frozen.
  • Bug: Hacker can still continue attacking when jailed in Jailed Towers.
  • Bug: When the Hacker clones a tower which is currently jailed in Jailed Towers, the clone of that tower will bypass being jailed.
  • Bug: Cloned towers will become permanent after reviving.
  • Bug: Converted enemies can be hit by tower projectiles, taking up their pierce while also having their effects applied to them. These effects can stall them, damage them or drop their defense.
  • Bug: Converted enemies can receive damage from Nuke's fallout.
  • Bug: Cloned towers take up the placement limit, despite the actual counter not increasing.
  • Bug: Players block placement of cloned towers.
  • Bug: Damage dealt by converted enemies does not create Damage Indicators or contribute to the total damage counter.
  • Bug: Once a cloned tower disappears, the left side ability menu does not update, often leading to certain ability keybinds being completely unusable until updated manually by the player (such as by selecting a tower).
  • Bug: Confusion causes converted enemies to move the wrong way.
  • Bug: Hacker has lead detection.
  • Bug: Cloned towers have their cost and sell cost be set to the Level 0 sell cost and cost of the tower, rather than the actual values at these Levels.
  • Bug: Converted enemies do not generate cash from kills.
  • Bug: Low Level Hacker can override effects of a higher Level Hacker.
  • Bug: Cloned towers can be upgraded by swapping between non-cloned and cloned towers.
• 11 June 2025 - v1.67.1
  • Store description changed.
  • Bugfix: Hacker now displays the correct currency.
• 11 June 2025 - v1.67.2
  • Bugfix: Hacker now properly targets enemies in Hardcore mode and no longer causes them to get stuck in place with zero base health.
• 18 June 2025 - v1.67.5
  • Bugfix: Flying and Ghost enemies converted by the Hacker no longer deal insanely high DPS to ground enemies.
  • Bugfix: When the Hacker kills an enemy in Hardcore mode, it no longer causes a chance to skip the wave instantly.
  • Bugfix: Cloned towers no longer become permanent after reviving.
  • Bugfix: Hacker is no longer immune to stuns.
  • Bugfix: Hacker is no longer immune to being frozen.
  • Bugfix: Converted enemies no longer receive damage from Nuke's fallout.
  • Bugfix: Cloned towers no longer take up the placement limit.
  • Bugfix: Players no longer block clone placement.
  • Bugfix: Hacker no longer has lead detection, as its damage type is no longer energy.

Notes