Lately Ingress has been all the talk lately. And with good reason. This new augmented reality game from Google is a great new game to get you walking more and shed those extra pounds from Thanksgiving and upcoming holidays. It’ll also give you a reason to get out of the house. But what are all these terms used in Ingress? Like resonators, portals, AP, etc.? Well that’s what we are going to explain to you today. Get you caught up to speed with all the Ingress Terminology. So who’s ready?
Access Level: The Access Level defines your agent level and the level of objects that you are allowed to use. Your Access Level increased in the game as your earn Action Points (AP).
AP (Action Points): Points earned as you accomplish tasks such as claiming Portals, creating Links, and forming Fields.
COMM: The communication panel for communicating with other agents.
Cool Down Period: A mandatory waiting period after hacking a Portal before you can hack the same Portal again in an attempt to acquire items. This period gets progressively longer if you are performing repeated Hacks.
Control Field: Link three Portals to form a Control Field. Establishing a Control Field increases the Mind Unit score for your faction based upon the human population density encompassed by the field.
Decay: Resonators will naturally decay and lose their XM health over time if they are not recharged.
Deploy: The act of installing an object. Resonators are deployed on Portals to control the Portal.
DEVICE Settings: Settings view in the OPS panel where game options and settings are controlled.
Enlightened: Faction attempting to help the Shapers infiltrate Earth. Followers believe that the Shapers bring a powerful Enlightenment that will lead to an evolution of humankind.
Faction: There are two main factions, or global teams, battling for control: The Resistance and the Enlightened.
Hacking: A mechanism for acquiring items from a Portal. Not every hack will be successful.
INTEL: A view showing the current scores. Displays the Mind Unit scores for both the Resistance and the Enlightened.
Intel Map: A web site that allows agents to view the current global state of the conflict and communicate with other agents.
Investigation Board: A site where truth seekers post their discoveries about their findings. Found at http://www.nianticproject.com.
ITEMS: An inventory of the game objects held by an agent. The ITEMS view is accessible via the OPS panel.
Mind Units: A measure of the human population that lives under a Control fields. The global score of Mind Units is shown on the INTEL view and on the Intelligence Map.
MISSIONS: A list of Missions available in the OPS panel. This includes the training missions that agents receive when they are first contacted.
MOD: An object that can be installed to increase the power or capability of another object. For example, installing a Shield MOD on a Portal will increase the defensive power of the Portal.
NIA: National Intelligence Agency: A black budget intelligence agency which appears to be a mundane administrative unit that coordinates International Intelligence. It is, in fact, the Agency that has been assigned to investigate ‘low probability/high risk’ threats — like transdimensional activity or paranormal threats.
NIANTIC Project: This is the secret experiment in France that starts our story. The original purpose is to study strange energy anomalies. It is run by DR. BOGDANOVITCH, and consists of 13 INVESTIGATORS. It goes horribly awry, in part, because a secret parallel project has been going on inside of it in which CALVIN is testing the effects of Shaper Infection (the NIA term for it) on the researchers.
OPS: The “Operations” panel that is integrated into the Scanner application. The OPS panel includes the ITEMS, INTEL, MISSIONS, RESEARCH, and DEVICE information tabs.
Portal Key: An object that allows for the creation of a Link to the Portal. It can also allow for remote recharging of the Resonators attached to the Portal. A Portal Key can be obtained by Hacking the Portal.
Portal Level: A summary level based on the various Resonator levels deployed on a specific Portal. Higher level ITEMS are usually received when higher level Portals are Hacked.
Recharging: Resonators must be periodically Recharged to maintain their power and control a Portal. If Resonators lose too much XM, then they will be at risk of easy destruction during enemy attacks. If all the Resonators on a Portal drop in XM health to the Critical level, then Links from the Resonators’ Portal will fail. Recharging a Resonator involves transferring XM from your Player reserve to the Resonator(s) on a Portal.
Resistance: Faction defending the Earth from the Shaper ingression. They are seen by some as being fearful of change or progress, but the Resistance is firm in its belief that it is protecting humanity.
Resonator: A high energy particle accelerator that is used to control the XM energy emitted by Portals. Deploying a Resonator on a Portal allows you to claim the Portal for your Faction.
Scanner: The core technology for your phone, the Scanner can detect Portals and interact with Exotic Matter (XM) and XM constructs such as Resonators and XMPs.
Shaper: A code name assigned by ADA or the NIA for the transdimensional intelligence that may be infiltrating our dimension through XM Portals. At present, we have no visualization for Shapers. We only seem to see them when manifested in their human identities (i.e., we see the scientist, not the idea virus inside).
Shield MOD: A type of MOD that can be installed on a Portal to increase its defense against attacks.
Target: An action that will direct the agent to the targeted location or object.
Upgrade: The ability to replace objects with items with a more powerful tech level. For example, Resonators and Mods, such as Shields, can be upgraded to increase the defensive strength of a Portal.
XM (Exotic Matter): A rare and powerful form of tri-polar energy leaking into our universe from another dimension. This energy forms the basis for all Shaper technology. XM is needed to power your Scanner. If XM falls below critical levels, your Scanner will be disabled. You can collect XM (represented by glowing orbs on the Scanner Map) by moving through those areas. The XM will be automatically harvested by your Scanner.
XMP: Non-polarized energy field weapon. Fires off in moving wave of 360 radius. As the weapon is upgraded, the energy wave’s power and radius of effect grow larger.
And that’s about it for all the Ingress terms. But be sure that as more get introduced into the game, we’ll be updating this post to reflect that. We want to be sure everyone knows how to play Ingress so they can have as much fun as we have had playing this great geolocation, augmented reality game.