History VideoGame / Ingress

See also ''VideoGame/PokemonGO'' and ''VideoGame/HarryPotterWizardsUnite'', two other Niantic games with similar gameplay.

** The Sojourner medal. You earn credit towards it for every 24-hour period in which you hack at least once.

* ProductPlacement: Zipcar parking spots, (formerly) Jamba Juice locations, Japanese Lawson stores, AXA retail agencies, and Vodafone shops have official portals, as exceptions to portal submission rules.

** AXA shields, which deflect 70% of damage.

** Red-colored Mitsubishi UFG capsules, which have a very low chance of duplicating items held within.
** Lawson Portal Cubes, which max out your XM tank.

* ItemCrafting: Added (to a limited extent) late in 2020 with the addition of the Kinetic Capsule to the game; it uses player movement (along with XM and other items) to upgrade certain portal mods to a higher tier. While there are hints that the Kinetic Capsule's capabilities may be upgraded at some point in future, currently it has five "programs" it can run:

* ItemCrafting: Added (to a limited extent) late in 2020 with the addition of the Kinetic Capsule to the game; it uses player movement (along with XM and other items) to upgrade certain portal mods to a higher tier. While there are hints that the Kinetic Capsule's capabilities may be upgraded at some point in future, currently it has four "programs" it can run:

* DifficultySpike:
** Levels 2 through 8 are simple to obtain: Simply earn the required AP. Past that, however, not only do the AP requirements for each successive level continue to increase exponentially, but new levels require badges to earn, and depending on portal availability even getting from Level 8 to 9 may take several times as long as it did to get from 1 to 8.

* UselessItem: Link Amps are used to extend the linking range of a portal. They are generally only useful on extremely out-of-the-way portals and for major, preplanned operations, as even a level 5 portal has more than enough range to link to anything within the same city, so they have absolutely no use in everyday play. And even then, quirks of the mapping system can allow ''cross-country'' linsk without amps. Putting Link Amps on a portal wastes mod slots that could be used on more useful mods and will most likely illicit angry remarks from fellow players, since installed mods can only be removed by enemy force, and is often a tactic for players who ADA[=/=]Jarvis their own portals by spamming it with useless links instead of shields.
** Made somewhat less useless with the advent of the Kinetic Capsule, as they can now be turned into [=SoftBank=] Ultra Links; in addition to boosting link range, SBULs also boost damage mitigation from links and increase the number of outbound links that can be made from a single portal.

* MeaningfulName: Edward Faulle, the contractor who was [[{{FallGuy}} allegedly]] responsible for the [=ZipCar=] code leak.

* PunnyName: P. A. Chapeau, the conspiratorial character "leaking" the story to the players. His nickname is based on the French words for tin foil hat.

** Shield Mods may not be very exciting, but installing them makes Resonators take less damage from enemy attacks, with Common-class Shields already adding 30% damage reduction. Outside of specialized operations (such as item farming and massive nation-spanning fields), putting a Shield on a Portal is virtually never a bad move.

** Shield Mods may not be very exciting, but installing them makes Resonators take less damage from enemy attacks. Outside of specialized operations (such as item farming and massive nation-spanning fields), putting a Shield on a Portal is virtually never a bad move.

* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: Played straight until the May 2014 update; it's very possible to hit Level 8 (the old level cap) within a month or two if you play regularly and in an area with a lot of portals. Once you do, the focus shifts from LevelGrinding to using level 8 items to reinforce friendly portals and assault enemy portals. The max level was later increased to 16, and the ''truly'' insane can "Recurse" to Level 1 and grind all the way back up for a CosmeticReward.

* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: Played straight until the May 2014 update; it's very possible to hit Level 8 (the old level cap) within a month or two if you play regularly and in an area with a lot of portals. Once you do, the focus shifts from LevelGrinding to using level 8 items to reinforce friendly portals and assault enemy portals. However, as of May 2014, the max level is now ''16'' and requires not only a massive amount of AP, but also completing badges, averting this trope.

* GoodVsGood: Not so much the Shapers and Niantic (both of which are very shady), but in-character material featuring Agents will typically make both sides out to be [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifists]] who want what they interpret as best for humanity. In-universe, this explains why the two sides never engage in physical violence over control of portals and fields, even when the fate of humanity is supposedly at stake.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: After listening to the Jarvis Manifesto, It can be assumed that this is what happened to Roland Jarvis.

* CatchPhrase: Klue, with "tell me that I'm wrong."

The game is free to play[[note]]mostly; see BribingYourWayToVictory below[[/note]], and was released for {{Android|Games}} on [[http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticproject.ingress Google Play]] in 2012 and for UsefulNotes/{{iOS|Games}} on the [[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id576505181 App Store]] in 2014.

* AllThereInTheManual: P.A. Chapeau runs a real website called ''[[http://www.nianticproject.com What Is The Niantic Project?]]'' and the [[http://investigate.ingress.com/ investigation]] webpage on the official ingress website, which serves to provide background information on the people, places, events, and organizations that form the background for ''Ingress''. The game itself provides the player with only the roughest outline of the conflict. The portals also occasionaly drop "Media" - documents that make no sense out of context.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Arguably, ADA, the Niantic Project's AI. [[spoiler:She appears to have ordered the killing of Roland Jarvis and an innocent bystander. She also arranged the death of contractor Edward Faulle in the wake of Zipcarmageddon.]]
** To be fair, ADA's sentience was shaped by people talking to her about themselves. Given the Niantic Project's staff roster, it should be no surprise she turned out a little bit questionable.

* {{Kayfabe}}: In addition to CharacterBlog posts on social media, the story of ''Ingress'' unfolds through real-world "Anomaly" events.

* AlternateRealityGame

* CooldownManipulation: The Heat Sink Portal Mods will reduce the time required between Portal hacks.

The game is free to play[[note]]mostly; see BribingYourWayToVictory below[[/note]], and was released for {{Android|Games}} on [[http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticproject.ingress Google Play]] in 2012 and for {{iOS|Games}} on the [[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id576505181 App Store]] in 2014.

* LaResistance: The Resistance, at least in name.

An [[https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/ingress-the-animation-netflix-ingress-prime-1202867371/ anime adaptation]] to go along with the new version, produced by Studio Crafter under the direction of Yuhei Sakuragi and with character designs by Takeshi Honda aired in October 2018 with worldwide streaming from Creator/{{Netflix}} on April 30, 2019.

An [[https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/ingress-the-animation-netflix-ingress-prime-1202867371/ anime adaptation]] to go along with the new version, produced by Studio Crafter under the direction of Yuhei Sakuragi and with character designs by Takeshi Honda will air in October 2018 with worldwide streaming from Creator/{{Netflix}} on April 30, 2019.

** SoftBank Ultra Link mods increase linking range by 4x (as opposed to a standard Link Amp's increase of 2x) AND increase the number of outgoing links on a portal from 8 to 16.

An [[https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/ingress-the-animation-netflix-ingress-prime-1202867371/ anime adaptation]] to go along with the new version, produced by Studio Crafter under the direction of Yuhei Sakuragi and with character designs by Takeshi Honda will air in October 2018 with worldwide streaming from Creator/{{Netflix}} sometime in 2019.