Cooldown reset when deploying Heat Sink mod?

Cooldown reset when deploying Heat Sink mod? - Contemporary bathroom design with round mirror hanging above sink and shower cabin near window and paneled walls

Yesterday, I hacked a portal, deployed a Heat Sink mod on it (there were no other mods), then hacked it again to see how long it would now take to cool down. To my surprise, the second hack (at most 20 seconds after the first) succeeded!

So it looks like deploying a Heat Sink immediately resets the Cooldown timer.

Is this a known technique? A bug? New?



Best Answer

Cooldown timer – Instant reset  

When a Heat Sink (regardless of rarity) is installed to a portal, the current cooldown timer is immediately finished. What does this mean? Say I hacked a portal and have 300 seconds to wait until I can hack again. When I install the Heat Sink, that counter is set to 0, allowing me to hack the portal instantly. This instant reset is only given to the Agent that deployed the mod. Even though my timer is reset to 0, you still must wait the the cooldown period before hacking again. You do, however, still benefit from the +% cooldown decrease given from the Heat Sink.

Burnout Reset

Typically you only get 4 hacks on a portal before burning it out. Multihacks of course add onto the burnout counter, allowing any Agent to hack beyond it’s burnout limit. Heat Sinks (regardless of rarity) now reset the burnout period to 0 for the Agent that installed the mod.

This reset is only a one time reset of the burnout counter for the Agent that installed the mod.

Example 1:

I’ve hacked a portal 4 times and burned it out. Adding a Heat Sink resets that burnout counter to 0, allowing me to hack 4 more times, with a total of 8 hacks. Other Agents still only get their original 4 hacks with no burnout reset.

Example 2:  

I’ve installed a Common Multi Hack and hacked a portal 8 times before burning out the portal. Adding a Heat Sink will reset that counter to 0, allowing me to hack 8 more times.

Stacking

Even though only the Agent installing the mod gets the Cooldown and Burnout bonuses, these bonuses can be obtained again.

Example:  

I stumble a portal with a VR Multi Hack (deployed by another Agent) giving me 16 hacks. I install a Heat Sink after burning it out, giving me another 16 hacks. After that, I install another Heat Sink, giving me 16 more hacks, 48 in total.

http://decodeingress.me/2014/03/21/next-generation-heat-sinks/




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Best VRM Cooling (30c Temperature drop)




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