The Hacker is a hardcore tower that hacks enemies, applying various effects to them. It can be purchased from the store for 5,500 or through a gamepass for 1,574.
It damages enemies using synapses fired from its equipment, which starts off with a smartphone, 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 attacked by the Hacker will have these effects applied to it:
First hack is Unit Conversion, unlocked at Level 0. When the enemy is killed, it will be converted into a hologram, with reduced health. This hologram will function similarly to a 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 unable to be converted into holograms. Enemy health is calculated using their max health and the tower's EV. Health is calculated as:
Second hack is Wire Fraud. 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.
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 duplicate a tower. It can duplicate 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 cloned tower will have the hologram modifier on it. The ability has a varying cost based on the total cost of the cloned tower. Hacker cannot clone other Hackers or itself. If a cloned tower has a placement limit, then there can only be as many clones of that tower from one player at a time as its placement limit. For example, the Gatling Gun can only have one clone from a player at a time due to the tower having a placement limit of one.
The Hacker has hidden detection from Level 2. It has a placement limit of two per player.
Upgrades
Upgraded Rig
Level 1 • Cost: $125
+1.5 Range
7.5% > 10% Slowness
Sell Price changes to $341
Shady Business
Level 2 • Cost: $1,337
+1.5 Range
+Hidden Detection
+1 Synapses
0.45 > 0.55 Hologram EV
12.5% > 15% Wire Fraud
Sell Price changes to $787
Teleportation Tech
Level 3 • Cost: $6,500
+1 Range
+10 Damage
0.55 > 0.625 Hologram EV
Creates a temporary hologram of the selected tower
•30% Clone Cost
•25 Hologram Lifetime
Sell Price changes to $2,954
5th Gen I9 3260590327
Level 4 • Cost: $24,000
+1 Range
+12 Damage
+1 Synapses
0.625 > 0.675 Hologram EV
15% > 20% Wire Fraud
30% > 25% Clone Cost
Sell Price changes to $10,954
Overclock
Level 5 • Cost: $60,001
+2.5 Range
0.3 > 0.1 Firerate
+3 Damage
0.675 > 0.75 Hologram EV
25 > 30 Hologram Lifetime
Sell Price changes to $30,954
Rug Pull
Level 5 • Cost: $53,200
+5 Range
+1 Synapses
10% > 12.5% Slowness
20% > 25% Wire Fraud
25% > 75% Clone Cost
25 > 120 Hologram Lifetime
Sell Price changes to $28,687
Upgraded Rig
Level 1 • Cost: $600
+3 Range
0.8 > 0.5 Firerate
7.5% Wire Fraud
Sell Price changes to $666
Shady Business
Level 2 • Cost: $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
Teleportation Tech
Level 3 • Cost: $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
•35% Clone Cost
•60 Hologram Lifetime
Sell Price changes to $3,583
5th Gen I9 3260590327
Level 4 • Cost: $22,000
-2 Damage
+1 Range
0.5 > 0.3 Firerate
15% > 20% Slowness
0.725 > 0.825 Hologram EV
10% > 12.5% Wire Fraud
35% > 30% Clone Cost
60 > 75 Hologram Lifetime
Sell Price changes to $10,916
Overclock
Level 5 • Cost: $63,500
+2.5 Range
0.3 > 0.1 Firerate
-3 Damage
+2 Synapses
20% > 15% Slowness
0.825 > 0.9 Hologram EV
Sell Price changes to $32,083
Rug Pull
Level 5 • Cost: $48,000
+5 Range
+1 Synapses
20% > 25% Slowness
12.5% > 20% Wire Fraud
30% > 25% 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.
Statistics
To see all the previous statistics of this tower, see the history page.
Do note however that the lifespan of cloned towers are very short. This makes the bottom path ideal for this, as it has the longest clone lifespans.
Additionally, due to the cooldown being 60 seconds, it is possible to have more than 1 clone. This can be further improved by using the Skill Accelerator to reduce the cooldown to 52.5 seconds.
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 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, do be aware when using defense dropping towers with the Hacker. While they will make converting enemies faster, they will also reduce the damage dealt.
While majority of enemies will still perform their on death abilities, some of them will be partially or fully negated. For example, the Breaker4 will only summon one Breaker3 on death when converted instead of three.
Some enemies can have their second phase cancelled by the Hacker. For example, the Abomination will be converted over before it changes into the Reanimated.
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.
Additionally, its slowness can stack with other towers, which means, combined with the Toxic Gunner and Harvester's thorns, they can slow down every non-boss enemy by up to 95%.
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 utilize the Hacker's high potential for dealing with crowds, set each Hacker’s targeting to Strongest and Weakest, respectively.
Setting the Hacker to Weakest can ensure that the tower will target and kill enemies on low health.
When using Firework Technician, each Synapses has their own chance to proc fireworks, resulting in the Hacker being way more likely to generate one.
This can be helpful for bottom path Hacker to make up for its lower DPS.
Trivia
The Hacker’s Level 4 upgrade name is a reference to the Intel Corei9 processor.
The string of numbers "3260590327" is the Place ID of Tower Defense Simulator on Roblox.
The Hacker was first teased all the way back in 2020, but did not make an appearance until the 11th of June 2025 in v1.67.0.
Bottom path Hacker has the second worst cost efficiency in the entire game, beaten by Swarmer at $5,800.
However, the Swarmer can reach higher cost efficiency with all its bee stacks applied than the Hacker with all of its synapses accounted for.
The Hacker is the only Hardcore tower at the time of Null & Void to not receive a null enemy variant.
Update History
For previous cosmetic variations, see the gallery page.
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.
Hacker's enemy disabling now can be enabled or disabled for specific levels, though currently it has been set to be disabled on all Levels, stopping the Hacker from disabling death animations or on death abilities.
Hacker tower clones now have a limit, with the limit being the same as the tower's placement limit. For example, the Hacker from a player can only have one Gatling Gun clone at a time.
↑ 2.02.1Due to bugs, it cannot be stunned by abilities fired like a minigun or ones that are lasers. This includes the legacy Templar, legacy P3NGU, Warden, Minigunner, Gunslinger's Crossbones Crossfire and Nuclear Monster's Nuclear Beam.
1,574.
