Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, I did look for it for some time.

According to the wiki, the hacker profession gives you "Passive Ability: Increases hacking strength by 30%."

What exactly does that mean? A higher success rate while hacking? Or do you just get more RP from a successful hack? If it's the former, how does that compare to the bonus to cloak you get from being a spy? If it's the latter... ugh

It could also affect crit hack chances, I suppose...

my understanding is that it just increases the amount of RP you can hack. useful at low ranks while finishing the research tree, but past about rank 300, pretty useless.

if you want to test for sure .. you can use the kills leaderboard as guinea pigs. if you can see the hack button on one of them (as non.hacker profession) .. adjust your cloak down until the hack button greys out. then switch to hacker profession and see if the hack button turns blue.

I stand corrected...that is a good way to test it.

Interesting, I've never seen a greyed out Hack button, just the message that my cloak isn't high enough.

must not have been thinking straight yesterday.

1. if your ship cloak is sufficient compared to target ship's scan .. you will see a blue hack button .. otherwise it will say that your cloak is not high enough

2. when you click on the hack button, your hack attempt rolls - the main formula is your cloak versus target cloak AND scan, further modified by hacker profession and any other hacking bonus. so increased hacking may increase your chances of crit.hacks and may decrease your chances of crit.hack fails.

3. if you hack successfully, you gain research points based on your target's rank. if they have sufficient RPs in cargo, you get the maximum amount. hence the lowbie strategy of hacking the kills leaderboard.