Cracking (Shadowrun 6th Edition)

Skills

Definition

Cracking is the offensive Matrix skill. It gets you into hosts you have no account for, fights other icons in cybercombat, jams and spoofs signals, and takes over devices whose owners are standing right there. It is the decker's whole job and the technomancer's second language. On a run it opens doors, blinds cameras, and turns the building's own security into a temporary asset, all of it happening in the seconds a physical infiltrator needs to move.

Ask AI about this term

How it works

**Linked Attribute**: Logic **Dice Pool**: Logic plus Cracking, counting each 5 or 6 as a hit. **Thresholds**: 1 hit for an open device, 3 for a defended host, 5 when the target is corporate and expecting you. **Gear**: A cyberdeck is the assumed tool for a decker. Technomancers do the same work through Resonance instead.

Tips

**Best for**: Deckers above all, and technomancers who pair it with Tasking. **Character concepts**: A console cowboy with a stolen deck, an ex-corporate security analyst who switched sides, a data thief who never leaves the van. **Synergies**: Electronics builds and maintains the hardware Cracking abuses, and a face keeping guards talking buys the seconds the intrusion needs.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Cracking and Electronics?

Electronics is legitimate use, building, and repair. Cracking is intrusion, cybercombat, and jamming, the half that gets you traced.

Do I need a cyberdeck?

A decker does. A technomancer works through Resonance and needs no deck, which is exactly why corps hunt them.

Cracking (Shadowrun 6th Edition)

Definition

How it works

Tips

Frequently asked questions

Further Reading