HELLO HACKER - Project Daybreak

Six months ago, you exposed PROJECT NIGHTFALL — an illegal government surveillance program responsible for 23 deaths. The story was buried. The architects walked free.

Now someone is trying to reach you. And they're using a dead woman's photograph to do it.

HELLO HACKER 2: PROJECT DAYBREAK

Project Daybreak is a story-rich hacking simulation played entirely from within a fully realized Linux desktop environment. Every tool, every application, every terminal window is yours to use. The conspiracy is real. The commands are real. The consequences are real.

THE STORY

A single encrypted dead-drop leads you to a name: Dr. Maren Solís — a senior intelligence analyst who was supposed to be dead. Buried in the image's metadata is one word: DAYBREAK.

Following the trail pulls you into something far larger than Nightfall ever was. A private AI firm called Meridian Systems has been quietly building an autonomous threat-assessment system called AURORA — trained on the surveillance data Nightfall spent years collecting. AURORA doesn't just watch. It decides. And it has already acted, without human review, eleven times.

You join a loose collective of hackers, journalists, and defectors who call themselves Daybreak. Their goal: expose AURORA before its twelfth decision is made.

But AURORA is watching the network. And it learns.

A FULL HACKING DESKTOP — NOT JUST A TERMINAL

Project Daybreak runs inside a simulated Linux desktop environment. Open multiple applications simultaneously, pivot between tools, and work the way a real analyst would.

• Terminal Emulator — A full Unix command set with pipe support, redirection, SSH session stacking, command history, and tab completion. Navigate multi-host networks, read logs, enumerate services, and cover your tracks.

• Network Scanner — Map target subnets with stealth, standard, or aggressive scans. Every scan mode generates a different noise signature on the target's intrusion detection system. A Canvas-rendered topology map shows your discovered network in real time.

• Browser with Request Interceptor — Access internal web applications. Pause, edit, and replay HTTP requests to find and exploit vulnerabilities — SQL injection, IDOR, SSRF, and more.

• Crypto Workbench — Decode ciphertexts, run frequency analysis, crack hashes, derive keys, and operate GPG-style encryption. A built-in frequency chart helps you identify substitution ciphers visually.

• File Analyzer & Steg Tool — Inspect files at the byte level. Extract hidden data from images using LSB steganography, find files embedded after EOF markers, and read EXIF metadata that was never meant to be found.

• Forensics Workstation — Browse disk images and recover deleted files. Parse network captures and extract credentials from plaintext protocols. Correlate events across multiple log sources into a unified timeline.

• OSINT Console — Search simulated social media profiles, WHOIS records, certificate transparency logs, code repositories, corporate registries, and news archives. Build intelligence dossiers and visualize connections between entities on a live link analysis graph.

• Comm Suite — Craft spear-phishing emails, execute social engineering campaigns, and navigate vishing scenarios through a branching dialogue system.

• Disassembler — Analyze binaries in a readable in-game intermediate representation. Annotate functions, trace cross-references, and patch instructions to bypass license checks and unlock restricted access.

• Exploit Console — Match discovered service versions to a library of exploits. Configure payloads, open remote shells, and manage active sessions.

• Malware Sandbox — Run captured malware samples in isolation. Watch behavior events fire in real time — file writes, network connections, registry modifications. Write detection rules based on what you observe.

• Password Manager & Cracker — Store discovered credentials, identify hash types, and run dictionary, mask, and rainbow table attacks. Weak passwords fall fast. Strong ones take time.

• OPSEC Dashboard — Monitor your operational security posture across every host you've touched. Manage your proxy chain, track forensic artifacts you've left behind, and watch AURORA's global threat level climb.

• Script Editor — Automate repetitive tasks with a bash-like scripting environment. Schedule scans, chain commands, and build your own tools from the same commands the terminal uses.

OPSEC: THE MECHANIC NO OTHER HACKING GAME HAS

Every action you take leaves a trace.

Every SSH login, every file you read, every failed password attempt — it all generates noise on the target host's intrusion detection system. Push a host's alert level too high and Meridian's security team gets involved. Push it further and AURORA begins to respond directly — rotating credentials, deploying honeypots, hunting the source of the intrusion.

The OPSEC Dashboard tracks your threat posture in real time. Clean log entries with shred. Clear your bash history. Route traffic through a proxy chain. Operate within credential rotation windows. Work fast enough that nobody notices you were ever there.

Ignore OPSEC and the mission gets harder. Ignore it long enough, and AURORA locks you out entirely.

REALISTIC CHALLENGES ACROSS 12 CATEGORIES

Every challenge in Project Daybreak is grounded in real cybersecurity concepts taught in CTF competitions and professional penetration testing. The game covers:

• Network reconnaissance and service fingerprinting

• Web application exploitation — SQL injection, IDOR, SSRF, XSS

• Cryptographic analysis — XOR, RSA weak keys, padding oracles, hash cracking

• Steganography — LSB extraction, whitespace encoding, EOF file hiding, EXIF metadata

• Digital forensics — deleted file recovery, PCAP analysis, log timeline reconstruction

• Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) — the deepest OSINT mechanic in any hacking game

• Social engineering — phishing, pretexting, vishing

• Reverse engineering — binary analysis, backdoor identification, patch mode

• Privilege escalation — SUID abuse, cron job exploitation, misconfigured sudo

• Operational security — artifact cleanup, proxy chaining, IDS evasion

• Exploitation — service fingerprinting, CVE-analog matching, payload configuration

• Malware analysis — behavioral sandbox, IOC extraction, detection rule writing

YOUR CHOICES SHAPE THE OUTCOME

The evidence you collect determines which ending is available to you. How you handle OPSEC determines how hard Meridian pushes back. Characters you help — or fail — carry those choices forward.

Three endings. One conspiracy. The truth is in the data.

BUILT FOR CYBERSECURITY LEARNERS AND ENTHUSIASTS

Project Daybreak is designed to be genuinely challenging for people who know cybersecurity — and genuinely educational for people who are learning it. Every technique the game asks you to use maps to a real-world concept. Every tool works the way the real-world equivalent works.

Whether you're preparing for CTF competitions, exploring a career in security, or just want a hacking game that doesn't insult your intelligence — this is it.

KEY FEATURES

• A fully realized Linux desktop environment with 15 interactive applications

• Story-rich single-player narrative across three acts with three branching endings

• OPSEC system — every action has a noise signature; AURORA responds dynamically

• 12 challenge categories grounded in real CTF and penetration testing disciplines

• The most in-depth OSINT mechanic in any hacking simulation game

• Multi-host network simulation with SSH pivoting and lateral movement

• 52 Steam Achievements for completionists and challenge hunters

• Built with Rust for a native, performant experience on Windows and Linux

Project Daybreak is a standalone sequel. You do not need to have played Hello Hacker to enjoy it — but if you did, you'll recognize the world.

Release date TBA - Late 2026 / Early 2027