Machina Research Document v2.3

Last updated: 2023-02-012

Please contact @Breenzy on TG if you have any new info not covered here.

Join the research group: https://t.me/MachinaResearchGroup

Bookmark https://linktr.ee/machina.research for the latest version of this document.

Historical Data: Machinas First Appearance

The first sighting of Machina followed the ending of the Epiphany Dawn anomaly in Los Angeles, California, USA.

It first appeared as agent "UNKNOWN" in the scanner which was modified with Unicode diacritics which give it the "glitch" effect. You can generate similar text here.

It was also not possible to try and view the profile at this point.

On 2023-02-04, the agent name was changed to "__MACHINA__" and you could now view the profile.

The First wave spread globally going east from North/South America. Starting from approx UTC 2022-11-13 01:00 AM and ending around Australia/New Zealand at approx UTC 2022-11-13 13:00 PM.

Second wave appeared to be at beginning of cycle, approx UTC 2022-11-19 ~15:20 PM.

Third wave appeared 15 hours later, approx UTC 2022-11-20 ~06:20 AM.

Note these times may be plus/minus either side depending where in the world you are time.

The Basics

Machina is an AI opponent that uses the colour red in the scanner. It's "agent" name in the scanner is "__MACHINA__".

View the profile in the scanner here.

Viewing the profile will show the red glitched Enlightened/Resistance logo as its symbol. The profile has zero AP, zero badges, and the only stats recorded are:

MAX TIME PORTAL HELD & PORTALS OWNED

The LINKS ACTIVE stat is currently zero despite it making links.

It's gameplay is automatic and restricted by certain rules, but it also doesn't abide by certain other rules agents are restricted by.

Portals it capture and eventually upgrade will always have at most 25% energy and 8 of the current level resonators, eg. Starts at R1 *8, upgrades to R2 * 8.

Portal level in the case of Machina portals is defined by the current level resonator. So if a portal with Level 5 resonators is partially destroyed and portal level drops to Level 3, the portal is still considered a Level 5 portal.

As the portal levels up, the crystal/shard in the middle of the portal will rise and get larger. See the end of this document for in-game example of all the levels.

Portals will decay by 5% every 24 hours from it's inception. Recent tickets filled with Niantic about Machina portal decay stopping at 5% and not dying seem to confirm that this is intended behaviour.

Hacking Machina portals will drain 100% of XM. This can occur through drone hacks.

Hacking yields normal low level gear (eg a P8 wont give L8 gear) but no keys.

Destroying the portal will drop 8 of the portals current level resonators, and a chance at some keys and some common/rare/very rare shields (except Aegis, force amps or turrets. Link amps and hack mods do not drop.

Enlightened/Resistance agents cannot create links across Machina links.

Machina can create links across any existing links, Machina, Enlightened, and Resistance.

Machina can create more than eight outgoing links. Maximum observed so far is 41 out (and 1 in).

Machina can only link to neutral portals (turning them into Machina portals in the process).

***NEW DATA***

A level 2 portal has been observed making a 9.776km link, and a level 8 portal has been observed making a 7.776km link. The below data may no longer be relevant.

Maximum link distance depends on portal level:
L2: 500m
L3: 750m
L4: 1000m
L5: 1500m
L6: 2000m
L7: 3000m
L8: 5000m

***NEW DATA***
Further details on how/when it links are in later sections.

Overhead fields do not stop Machina from spreading.

Machina cannot create fields.

All actions performed by Machina do not appear in COMMS.

JARVIS/ADA acts as destroying portal.

Machina Initial Spawning Conditions

The initial spawn is a brand new Machina portal, not created by existing Machina portals spreading to new neutral portals.

This portal will be Level 1, with eight Level 1 resonators all at 25% health.

The initial spawn only occurs at the beginning of a cycle, on a valid neutral portal.

Initial spawn uses the S2 cells system.
Ingress currently uses this system for the scoring regions, specifically it uses Level 6 size cells.
Machina initial spawns uses Level 12 cells (which are significantly smaller) that have at least 40 portals, and at least one neutral portal to spawn on. Note that just because a cell might have a valid spawn portal, that doesn't mean a Machina portal can/will spawn, there is either an unknown % chance for the initial spawn, or some kind of other mechanism that controls it.

Machina Portal Spread

For a longer, visual explanation of a cluster, see the very end of this document.

To understand how Machina spreads, we need to define several things.

The initial spawn portal will be the "seed portal" for the cluster.

The cluster is defined as all portals that are descendants of this seed portal. Note that the seed portal could die and become a Machina portal once again, but be an entirely different cluster.

So if portal A (the seed portal) linked out and created portal B, and portal B then linked out and created portal C, they would all be part of the same cluster as portal C is a grand-child portal of portal A.

If a portal is disconnected from the cluster in any way, it is still considered part of that cluster.

Every 5 hours, one portal in the cluster has an unknown chance at levelling up. This 5 hour clock is based on spawn time of the portal, so all portals within a cluster have roughly the same clock (just a different spawn time at 5 hour intervals), while this can be off by a few seconds per portal, most likely due to server lag, for basic purposes, it's the same time.

So if portal A (the seed portal) spawned at 5am local time, then the first chance it gets to level will be at 10am. If the portal does level and creates portal B, then the next chance either portal has to level will be at 3pm. Remember only one of the portals within the cluster has a chance to level every 5 hours.

*** IMPORTANT NOTE ***
Over the last few days it has been observed that multiple portals per cluster have been levelling. This might be a new addition to spur growth.

When a portal levels, two events occur:

~ The portals resonators will all advance by one level and heal back to 25% if damaged/decayed.
Any missing resonators will also be redeployed.
If the portal is already Level 8, it will heal and redeploy resonators.
There is currently no indication of an internal level past Level 8.

~ Based on the portals new level, it will make zero to five links to neutral portals that are within range based on the below parameters, and make new Level 1 Machina portals.
Note that no matter the level of the portal that does the linking, the new portals will always be Level 1.
The linking range is based on what level the portal becomes, not what it was.
So if a portal levels from Level 4 to Level 5, link ranges will be based on Level 5.
A Level 8 portal can continue linking, it is unknown if an upper level of outgoing links exist.

Mod Drop Rates

FAQ

Q: Can a Machina portal link to an Enlightened/Resistance/Machina portal?
A: No. A Machina portal can only link to a neutral portal (turning it into a Machina portal in the process).

Q: Can a portal be reinfected?
A: Yes, there is no observed time limit between reinfections. As long as the portal has gone neutral, it can be infected again.

Q: Can a Machina portal be reinfected?
A: No. Machina can only link to neutral portals.

Q: Can a portal immediately level up after being created?
A: No. Only one portal per cluster can level at a time.

Q: Can Machina make fields?
A: No. As Machina can only create link to neutral portals, it will never make the required links for a field.

Q: Can a Level 8 Machina portal keep linking?
A: Yes. Assuming it gets picked to "level up" and heal, it can make zero to five new links.

Q: Can a cluster be just one portal?
A: Yes.

Portal Examples

Cluster Guide

A cluster starts with a seed portal. In EXAMPLE 1 we have three clusters, with seed portals of:
~ Portal A (Cluster Alpha)
~ Portal P (Cluster Bravo)
~ Portal M (Cluster Charlie)

Over time, these clusters will expand, but never join together (Machina can only link to neutral portals), and could look like this:

In EXAMPLE 2, our three clusters have grown, and now look like this:

Cluster Alpha: Portal A, B, H, D
Cluster Bravo: Portal P, F, G, L
Cluster Charlie: Portal M, K, J

Then an agent passes by and destroys some of the portals, and we're left with this:

The clusters are now this:

Cluster Alpha: Portal A, B, H, D
Cluster Bravo: Portal F, G
Cluster Charlie: Portal J

Some time will pass, the clusters continue to grow, and the start of the next cycle occurs giving us a new cluster (seed Portal M once again), some more time passes, and our area now looks like this:

We now have four clusters in EXAMPLE 4:

Cluster Alpha: Portal A, B, H, D, C, P
Cluster Bravo: Portal F, G, I, E
Cluster Charlie: Portal J, K
Cluster Delta: Portal M, L, N (Portal M = Seed)

Now despite Portal M getting reinfected, it is now considered part of a new cluster.

Hopefully this has cleared up what a cluster is.

Change Log

v1: Initial document during first research phase at Machina release.

v2: Document cleaned up for proper release.

v2.1: Added update for MACHINA name in scanner and agent profile.

v2.2: Clarified when a portal is no longer connected to a cluster.

v2.3: Added longer explanation on clusters with visuals.