There are many excellent guides in the internet on the how to rob a bank (including an amazing one here in Steam), but most of them use methods that are very expensive, such as Monitor Bypass, CPU upgrades and hacking the Bank Admin account.

Sure, they make life easier and safer, but they are not actually needed to rob a bank. In fact, I've found out that the actual requirements to successfully pull a millionaire heist off are quite low. Besides the Password Breaker/Trace Tracker/Log Deleter "trinity" you get in day 1, the only needed software is a Proxy Disable v5.

Yes, it can be done with the default Gateway/60Ghz CPU. And no, you don't need to be a ninja. It's actually quite easy.

I've decided to write this guide after a gameplay I was extremely lucky to get 2 'Trace Balance' missions whose statements lead me to 4 millionaire accounts.

The result was:

• March 28th
  
• About 1h of game play
  
• 4500000c balance
  
• Expert Level
  
• Top 1 Agent in Uplink Ranking

After those 4 successful robberies I'm confident the method works, so I took the time to write this Guide to share it with everyone (and, I admit, to brag a bit about my achievement)

Being an early game bank robbery, the pre-requisites are pretty easy to get:

You need to be at least Grade 12 - Intermediate level, so you have access to Find Financial Details and Trace Balance Transfer missions, which you will use to find suitable targets. This guide assumes you know how to complete such missions.

• Password Breaker v1 - 1,500c
  
• Log Deleter v4 - 4,000c
  
• Trace Tracker v3 - 1,400c
  
• Proxy Disable v5 - 10,000c

Trace Tracker is actually optional, but it helps a lot. Any version will do, and I think v4 is a waste of money and disk space, so I recommend v3. And Log Deleter may work with lower versions, but I didn't test it.

That's less than 17,000c worth of software, and most of it you'll already have/need to get to Intermediate level. You start the game with 3,000c, and you can get extra 1,000 by increasing your loan, so you actually only need to get 13,000c in missions. And this is a granted when you get to the necessary missions.


This guide assumes you've already hacked the InterNIC Admin account and also that you've saved a decent bounce network, with InterNIC itself as the first bounce from your gateway. I've used all the links from InterNIC directory, which gives me a huge active trace time of almost 300s. Only 60s is enough for a comfortable robbery, or ~35s if you're really fast (or have upgraded CPU).


This guide also assumes you're familiar with some game basic concepts: how to speed up running software by increasing their CPU usage, how to use InterNIC directory/IP Probe to find a server by IP, how to use the Password Breaker and Log Deleter, how Active and Passive traces work, etc. In a nutshell: this is an early-game but not a newbie guide. Refer to other Guides here on Steam or use The Ultimate Uplink Guide[guide.modlink.net] for details on the basics.

Now you need to find a suitable target - a bank account with huge a balance of 1 million credits or more. You could hack a bank's Admin account an write down all account numbers and passwords, but such hacking requires expensive software (and hardware).

However, 2 mission types that are available at Intermediate level give you access to bank account numbers very early in the game:

• Find Financial Details:
  Client interested in financial data on an enemy
  Find Financial Details of one of our associates
  
• Trace Balance Transfer:
  Trace a recent balance transfer
  Trace an unauthorized money transfer

The latter is almost sure to lead you to a millionaire account, the perfect target. It will probably be the receiver account, but sometimes the sender is also a millionaire.

Now access the given bank account, take a look at its balance and its Statement logs, look for any transaction of a large amount of credits. If you're not lucky, simply write down all accounts listed in the Statement, and repeat this for each account.

(to write an in-game note, just send an email to yourself)

Once you've found your target, it's time to prepare for the attack. Being an early game robbery, I'm assuming you're using the stock 60Ghz CPU, so saving time is essential. A few hints on proper preparation:

• Make sure you have hacked the target account at least once, so you can access later it using the Known Access Codes list without the Password Breaker.
  
• In your gateway quick-access link list, mark both the target bank and your bank (Uplink) as '+', to highlight them as Orange (or Green if it's a mission target) in the World Map. You'll need to quickly switch between them, so the color highlight is important to make easy to find in the "white mess" that your bounce network (hopefully) is.
  
• Memorize the amount you'll transfer. You don't want to access the balance summary
  screen in the middle of the transaction to remember how much the account has.

Once all requirements and preparations are set, the attack itself is quite easy:

(for those who know their way around)

• Connect to the target bank using the saved bounce network
  
• Start Proxy Disable
  
• Access the target account and transfer the money to your account
  
• Delete the outgoing transfer log from the Statement and disconnect
  
• Connect to Uplink bank also using the saved bounce network
  
• Start Proxy Disable
  
• Access your account and delete the incoming transfer log from your Statement
  
• Connect directly to InterNIC
  
• Delete both bounce logs

(all the gory details, including some time-saving tips)

• Connect to the target bank using the saved bounce network
  
• Start Proxy Disable
  
• Don't click anything else until Active Trace starts (about halfway the proxy disable)
  
• Log in the target account using the 'Known Access Codes' list
  
• Transfer the money to your Uplink bank account. Use the $ button to see your bank IP and account number
  
• Wait for for Proxy Disable to finish before hitting 'Commit', if not already
  
• Go to 'View Statement' and quickly delete the first log entry ('1000000c transferred to ...') using the Log Deleter
  
• Disconnect
  
• Connect to your Uplink bank, also using the saved bounce network
  
• Active Trace will start as soon as you connect (game bug?)
  
• Start Proxy Disable
  
• Access your account, go to 'View Statement', and wait (a looong time) for Proxy Disable to finish
  
• Delete the first log entry ('1000000c deposited from ...') using Log Deleter
  
• Disconnect
  
• Connect directly to InterNIC
  
• Delete both bounce log entries, the ones labeled 'Connection from 127.0.0.1 routed to...'

If you are successful, a few seconds after you delete the InterNIC bounce logs you'll receive an email from Uplink with a big level increase.


You're now rich and famous! Enjoy!

The levels you get after each successful 1M+ bank robbery are, starting from Intermediate:

• 1st bank: Uber-skilled
  
• 2nd bank: Elite
  
• 3rd bank: Mage
  
• 4th bank: Expert

Remember you only need around 400K to buy every single hardware and software in the game, so a single big robbery is more than enough. And finding one suitable target is quite easy if you keep your eyes open and check the statements of all bank accounts you come across.



Good Luck!