Glossary

The following is a glossary of Ingress-related terms. It includes both official terminology and agent slang, and contains links to the relevant articles on Fev Games where applicable.

access points (AP)

Your personal “score” in Ingress. [article]

action range

The maximum distance from which you can perform most interactions with a portal (40 meters).

apex (access point exploit)

A boost that multiplies the AP you receive for a limited time. [article]

ADA

  1. (proper noun) (“A Detection Algorithm”) An artificial intelligence developed by the NIA. She has historically been seen as being affiliated with the Resistance.
  2. (noun) Short for ADA refactor. [article]
  3. (verb) To use an ADA refactor on a portal.

ADA refactor

A type of flip card which converts an Enlightened portal to the Resistance faction. [article]

Aegis shield (Aegis)

The strongest type of portal shield. [article]

afterparty

A social gathering that takes place after an anomaly. Some may be organized by Niantic; these will always be cross-faction and will usually feature official announcements. Local agents may organize their own afterparties, which may be cross-faction or faction specific.

agent

The in-game term for Ingress players. [article]

agent name

The name by which an agent is known. Also: call sign, handle

alignment

The faction with which a particular agent, portal, link or control field is affiliated.

anchor

A portal which supports a link or control field. To bring down a link or control field, an agent must attack one of its anchors. Also: vertex

alternate account (alt)

A secondary account used by the same agent. Having more than one account per person is a violation of the Ingress terms of service. See also: backpack

anomaly

An event where agents from both factions gather to compete. [article]

AP

See: access points

artifact

(also frequently called a “shard”) An object which can be found at some portals during certain events, and which can move along links. [article]

attack

  1. (said of an agent) To use a weapon against a portal. [article]
  2. (said of a portal) To drain XM from an opposite-aligned agent’s reserves in retaliation for hacking or attacking it.

avatar

The indicator in the scanner that shows the agent’s location.

backpack

An alternate account used as a storage space to extend an agent’s inventory. Backpacks violate the Ingress terms of service. See: alternate account

badge

See: medal

badger link

(from a memetic YouTube video) A link purposefully thrown by an agent who does not care that it may cause problems for their teammates. Compare: derp link (accidental), YOLO link (intentional but not necessarily malicious)

BAF

Another term for “megafield.” According to Suzanna Moyer on the Ingress Report, it stands for “Big Augmented Field.” Sure, Suzy, the A clearly stands for “Augmented.”

ban

(said of Niantic) To terminate an agent’s account. Banning occurs as a result of violating the Ingress terms of service.

barcode

An agent whose name is composed entirely of the following characters: l (lower-case ell), I (upper-case eye) or 1 (one). Some agents choose barcode names to make it more difficult for their identities to be distinguished from that of other barcode agents. However, as the practice affects both factions, it is less effective for confounding the enemy, and is sometimes viewed as being engaged in by spoofers and other cheaters with the intention of making people less confident about which agent they’re reporting to Niantic.

BARF

A Resistance megafield. See: BAF

battle

  1. An agent-hosted competition between factions for control of a portal. Battles are launched by deploying a battle beacon. [article]
  2. (informal) An encounter between agents of opposite factions, fighting for control as part of a larger anomaly or operation.

beacon

A powerup that displays a floating image above the portal on which it is used. [article]

beergress

See: -gress

bikegress

See: -gress

black

See: onyx

blast radius

The maximum distance at which an XMP or ultra strike can inflict damage. Resonators within the blast radius will receive damage, and portals within the blast radius may have one or more of their mods stripped. Blast radius varies by the weapon’s type and level.

blocker

A link that obstructs another contemplated link.

blue

Of, pertaining to, or controlled by the Resistance. (The Resistance faction is represented by this color.) See also: smurf

boost

A type of item that enhances portals or agents. Previously called powerup. [article]

bot

Software that facilitates automatically performing actions as an agent. Botting is against the Ingress terms of service and risks getting your account banned. It is also extremely unpopular with other agents.

branded item

See: sponsored item

bronze

The lowest core medal tier. Bronze medals do not contribute to leveling.

build

The opposite of destroy; to deploy resonators or mods, or to create links or fields.

Builder

A medal given for deploying or upgrading resonators. [article]

burned out

A temporary state in which a portal can no longer be hacked by a particular agent that has hacked it multiple times. By default, a portal is burned out if the same agent has hacked it four times within the last four hours, though multi-hacks can increase the number of hacks before burnout occurs. Burnout is per agent; other agents can still hack the portal.

burster

See: XMP burster

calibration grid

The grid of 11 points on which glyphs are drawn.

call sign

See: agent name

campfire

Eight resonators deployed directly on top of the portal. Usually a bad thing to do, but filling out the mod slots with low-value mods and using a flip card can be a viable tactic for reducing the portal’s farm value. Also: pineapple

capsule

An item which can contain other items. [article]

capture (cap)

To deploy a resonator on an unclaimed portal.

cargress

See: -gress

carousel

A user interface widget found in the scanner that permits an agent to select an item by swiping left and right.

cell

An area where the Ingress scanner app displays regional scoring. Each cell has a unique name. You can view scoring for your current cell by accessing the Scores screen under the OPS menu. There are 24,576 cells worldwide, although some are in uninhabited areas.

chaotic matter

An unstable variant of exotic matter.

chaotic matter units (CMU)

The currency with which premium items can be purchased, obtained in exchange for real-world currency. [article]

checkpoint

A moment in time when the MU total for each faction is taken for each cell, used for regional scoring. A checkpoint occurs every five hours, and there are 35 checkpoints per septicycle. You can view the time until the next checkpoint by accessing the Scores screen under the OPS menu.

clown car

See: mobile 8s

cluster

A group of portals that represent potential objectives during a phase of an anomaly.

COMM

The chat functionality in your scanner and on the intel map. [article]

COMM bomb

Many agents sending COMM messages to one agent. This is often to congratulate that person, such as to wish them a happy birthday.

common

The second-lowest rarity. Items which can be found at common rarity include heat sinks, multi-hacks, and portal shields.

compass

The indicator found just below the events panel at the upper-right of the scanner screen that shows which direction is north. [article]

Connector

A medal awarded for creating links. [article]

control field

An area bounded by three links, which captures territory for the affiliated faction. [article]

cooldown

A period of time following a single hack in which an agent cannot hack the same portal again. By default, the cooldown period lasts five minutes, though heat sinks can reduce this time. Cooldown is per agent; other agents can still hack the portal.

couch portal

A portal that an agent can hack from within their own home. In most cases, a couch portal is submitted by the agent who lives there to enable them to hack it without leaving home, and the term carries an implication of laziness. Given that the submission guidelines state that portals must not be located on private residential property, most couch portals are invalid and should be removed. Compare: desk portal

cow unit

See: moo unit

craft

See: forge

cross-faction

Involving both factions in a non-competitive context; e.g. cross-faction field art, cross-faction afterparty. Also: x-fac

cube

See: power cube

cycle

See: septicycle

dead drop

Physical items planted at a specific location. They typically include passcodes (often encrypted), valuable anomaly intel, and/or materials that reveal aspects of the back story.

decay

  1. The natural decline of resonator XM over time. Resonators lose approximately 15% of their XM per day. Recharging can counteract this decay.
  2. (by extension of sense #1) The destruction of resonator, link, or control field; or the neutralization of a portal; due to resonator XM decay.

decode

To extract passcodes from posts and other materials released by Niantic.

defend

To act to prevent the neutralization of a portal that is under attack by enemy agents. This is done by deploying, upgrading or recharging resonators; or installing mods.

deploy

To use a resonator or mod on a portal. Also: install. [articles: deploy resonator, install modFor consistency, the Fev Games Ingress Guide uses “deploy” for resonators and “install” for mods.

derp link

A link created by accident, especially if it interferes with the current operation’s plans. Compare: badger link (intentional and malicious), YOLO link (intentional but not necessarily malicious)

desk portal

A portal that an agent can hack from their place of employment, especially if they do not have to leave their desk to do so. Unlike couch portals, desk portals tend to be located on publicly-accessible non-residential property, and thus are more likely to meet Niantic’s portal submission guidelines. Compare: couch portal

destroy

The opposite of build; to use weapons to eliminate resonators, mods, links and fields. Agents are sometimes heard to say that they are “destroying” a portal, but really they mean the resonators, mods, links and fields attached to it; the portal itself is neutralized, not destroyed.

dirty hack

To hack an enemy portal.

dispatch

See: operator

drone

See: Dronenet

Dronenet

A network of drones operated by IQTech that agents can use to remotely hack portals. [article]

drop

  1. (said of agents) To discard an item from one’s inventory, either to transfer it to another agent or simply to get rid of it. [articleCompare: pick up
  2. (said of portals) To grant one or more items as the result of a hack.
  3. (said of portals) To deposit the portal key that was used to create a link on the ground when said link is destroyed.

E_

The letter E followed by a number is a shorthand for expressing the level of an Enlightened agent or portal. See: level, see also: L_, R_

Engineer

A medal awarded for installing mods. [article]

Enlightened (ENL)

One of the two factions. The Enlightened faction generally believes that XM is beneficial to mankind and that the Shapers are benevolent. They are represented by the color green.

Epoch

A medal awarded for completing seven-day streaks of daily hacking. [article]

Explorer

A medal awarded for hacking distinct portals. [article]

exotic matter (XM)

The material which is emitted by portals, powers resonators and scanners, and is required to perform almost any action in Ingress. [article]

faction

One of the two teams in Ingress: the Enlightened and the Resistance. [article]

farm

  1. (noun) A cluster of portals. Farms tend to be heavily contested because controlling them makes it easy to quickly hack a lot of items for your inventory without retaliation.
  2. (verb) To perform many hacks—often at a farm (sense #1), but sometimes at a single modded portal—with the objective of significantly increasing one’s inventory, or keys to specific portals.

field

See: control field

field art

A picture drawn with control fields.

field kit

Items that you receive automatically as a reward for leveling up. [article]

fire

To use a weapon.

First Saturday

First Saturdays are Niantic-sanctioned events that take place on the first Saturday of each month. They are intended to help agents (especially new ones) connect with each other, as well as provide some friendly competition. First Saturdays are hosted by Fev Games. See the Ingress events page to see where upcoming First Saturday events are being held.

fish unit (FU)

Fish units are a tongue-in-cheek term for mind units received from a control field thrown over a body of water, where presumably no human population lives. (Because population values for mind unit calculations for control fields are approximate, they can sometimes produce results that seem nonsensical.) Also: mackerel unit, mermaid unit, see also: moo unit, moose unit

flash farm

An event where high-level agents quickly build a farm and burn it out before enemy agents arrive to destroy it.

flip

To use a flip card on a portal. [article]

flip card

An item which immediately converts a portal to the opposite faction. There are two types of flip cards: the ADA refactor and the JARVIS virus. [article]

force amp

A type of mod that increases the amount of damage done by a portal when it attacks an enemy agent. [article]

force sync

A command which caused the scanner to discard its local cache and request updated data from the game servers. This was sometimes used to resolve problems with inaccurate representations of game state in the scanner. The option to do this has been removed from Ingress Prime.

forge

To create an inventory item though the use of a kinetic capsule. [articleAlso: craft

FR

See: fully redeemed

fracker

See: portal fracker

frog

Slang term for Enlightened (green being their faction color).

fully deployed/powered

(said of a portal) Describes a portal that has eight resonators deployed on it. Deploying a resonator in a portal’s last empty slot is referred to as fully deploying or powering the portal; this grants you 250 AP and allows the portal to be linked.

fully redeemed

(said of a passcode) Passcodes can be redeemed only by a fixed number of agents. If the passcode has already been redeemed by that many agents, any other agent that attempts to redeem it will get an error message saying that the passcode is “fully redeemed.”

gear

See: item

ghost

(said of a link or field) A link or field which fails to go down when one if its anchor portals is neutralized. These ghost links and fields remain up until a cleanup script run periodically by Niantic notices and removes them. This used to be a much more common problem than it is today.

gigafield

The next step up from megafield, a control field at or approaching continental scale.

glack

See: glyph hack

glyph

A symbol that is part of the Shaper language. Shaper glyphs are emitted by portals during the glyph hacking mini-game.

glyph hack

Long-pressing the hack button on your scanner starts a mini-game where you are shown several glyphs; replicating them awards you extra gear. [article]

gold

The third-highest core medal tier. Gold medals are required for levels 9 through 13.

gray

See: neutral

green

Of, pertaining to, or controlled by the Enlightened. (The Enlightened faction is represented by this color.) See also: frog

-gress

Suffix which refers to combining Ingress with another activity. Mostly used to refer to your transportation: cargress, bikegress, busgress, etc. The term beergress is also often seen. Please be wise with combining Ingress with other activities. Don’t drink and drive, and don’t drive distracted.

hack

An action you can perform on a portal which will often grant items for your inventory. [article]

Hacker

A medal awarded for hacking portals. [article]

hackstreak

A mechanic that rewards agents for completing seven-day streaks of daily hacking. [article]

handle

See: agent name

heat sink

A mod which reduces a portal’s cooldown time and resets its cooldown and burnout timers. [article]

How do I walk?

A question sometimes asked by new Ingress agents, due to their not understanding that Ingress requires you to actually get up and leave the house.

hypercube

A power cube variant which replenishes your XM reserves automatically as they are used. [article]

icon

An image which represents an agent. Your icon is visible at the upper-left of the scanner screen. An agent’s profile screen shows their icon at the upper-left.

Illuminator

A medal awarded for capturing mind units with control fields. [article]

immune

(said of a portal) Not vulnerable to flip cards. Portals are immune for one hour after a flip card is used on them. Using a flip card on an immune portal wastes the card.

Ingress

A massively-multiplayer augmented reality mobile game in which two factions compete to control real-world locations.

Ingress Prime

The current version of the scanner.

Innovator

A medal awarded to recognize the second anniversary of Ingress. [article]

install

See: deploy. For consistency, the Fev Games Ingress Guide uses “deploy” for resonators and “install” for mods.

intel

The former name of the Scores screen, which gives global and regional scoring updates. [article]

intel map

A web application operated by Niantic Labs which can be used to view any portal, link, control field or artifact in the world. [article]

inventory

  1. Storage space within the scanner where items are kept.
  2. A tab on the OPS screen which displays the items in your inventory. [article]

invite

A virtual “ticket” to send an invitation to another person to become an Ingress agent. They are rather pointless, as most agents have more invites than they’ll ever use. Currently, sending invites is only available from the Intel map.

item

An object that can be stored in an agent’s inventory. [article]

item cap

An agent’s inventory is capped at 2,000 items. In general, if you attempt to gain more items while at or over item cap, the attempt will fail. However, if you are below item cap, the attempt will succeed, even if it results in you being over the item cap. Exceptions to these rules exist. [article]

ITO EN

  1. See: transmuter
  2. The company that sponsors transmuters.

Jarvis

  1. (proper noun) Roland Jarvis is the originator of the Enlightened faction. If an agent accepts his invitation to join him after the tutorial, Jarvis patches his/her scanner to operate for the Enlightened.
  2. (noun) Short for JARVIS virus. [article]
  3. (verb) To use a JARVIS virus on a portal.

JARVIS virus

A type of flip card which converts a Resistance portal to the Enlightened faction. [article]

key

See: portal key

key locker

A premium capsule variant that stores only portal keys. Any keys in a key locker do not count toward your item cap. [article]

kinetic capsule

A premium capsule variant that allows you to forge very rare items from items of lesser rarity. [article]

L_

The letter L followed by a number is a shorthand for expressing the level of an agent, portal or item. See: level, see also: E_, R_

lane

The path where a planned future link will be. The term is often used in the context of planning or executing an operation.

layered fields

Nested control fields with a two common anchors. Also: nested fields, onion fields

level

An indicator of the relative power of an agent, portal or some items. The higher the level, the stronger it is. [article]

level up

To meet AP and medal requirements that results in your agent level increasing. [article]

Liberator

A medal awarded for capturing portals. [article]

link

  1. (noun) A beam of light connecting two portals of the same faction. [article]
  2. (verb) To establish a link (sense #1).

link amp

A mod which, when installed on a portal, increases its link range. [article]

link range

The maximum distance to a remote portal from an origin portal and still be successfully linked. You can increase a portal’s link range by upgrading its resonators or installing link amps.

litter

Unwanted items dropped by agents (especially keys, which are less convenient to recycle).

locker

See: key locker

Luminary

A medal awarded to recognize the second anniversary of Ingress. [article]

Machina

A third, AI-controlled faction. Machina assets show up as red in the scanner and the Intel Map.

mackerel unit

See: fish unit

measurement window

A period of time during an anomaly during which a snapshot of the cluster state will be taken. The snapshot occurs at a random moment during the window, unknown to the agents. The state of the cluster at the moment of the snapshot is used for scoring.

medal

A virtual reward for an in-game accomplishment, similar to achievements in other games. Also: badge [article]

media

A kind of item that can occasionally be hacked from portals, which can contain text, images, sound clips or videos. [article]

megafield

A large control field, typically at the city scale or larger.

mermaid unit

See: fish unit

Mind Controller

A medal awarded for creating control fields. [article]

mind unit (MU)

A measure of the human population that is under the influence of a control field, which is the principal scoring mechanism in Ingress. [article]

mission

Missions are collections of portals that you must visit and perform certain actions to earn a medal for that mission. [article]

mission banner/mosaic

A composite image created in an agent’s profile by performing a set of missions in a certain order.

mission control

See: operator

Mission Creator

A web application from Niantic Labs that can be used to create missions. [article]

Mission Day

A Niantic-sponsored activity done in cooperation with a local organization where agents can complete specially-created missions to earn a Mission Day medal. See the Ingress events page to find out when and where the next Mission Days are. [article]

mobile 8s

When agents at level 8 or higher travel together on a predefined route, making each portal they encounter level 8, hacking it once, then moving on. Often, this is done in a loop, so that you can do another hacking pass if the portals haven’t yet been destroyed by the enemy. Even though you might only do one hack per portal, it still typically results in a net positive on gear, destroys a bunch of enemy portals, and when the enemy shows up, you’re already gone.

mod

An item which can be installed on friendly portals to modify their stats. [article]

moo unit

Moo units are a tongue-in-cheek term for an unexpectedly large number of mind units received from a control field thrown over rural areas, where presumably little human population lives. (Because population values for mind unit calculations for control fields are approximate, they can sometimes produce results that seem nonsensical.) Also: cow unit; see also: moose unit, fish unit

moose unit

Similar to moo unit, but for areas of northern wilderness where little agriculture occurs and moose/elk are abundant. See also: fish unit, moo unit

MU

See: mind unit

muggle

(from Harry Potter) A person who is not an Ingress agent, especially one that doesn’t know what Ingress is. This has inadvertently become funnier with Niantic’s release of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.

multi-hack

A mod which improves a portal‘s burnout insulation, which increases the number of times you can hack it before it burns out. [article]

National Intelligence Agency (NIA)

The government agency which developed ADA and conducted much research into XM.

nested fields

See: layered fields

neutral

Not pertaining to either faction, usually said of portals. Neutral portals are gray.

neutralize

To attack an enemy portal until you have destroyed all its resonators, causing it to become neutral.

Niantic Labs

The company that created Ingress, formerly part of Google.

Niantic Project

A top secret government project commissioned by the NIA to research XM.

noob

A new Ingress agent. Be nice to the noobs!

N’zeer

A mysterious extraterrestrial group which opposes the Shapers. Generally welcomed by the Resistance and opposed by the Enlightened.

octant

Another term for a resonator slot (because there are eight of them in a circle). See: slot

onion fields

See: layered fields

onyx

The highest core medal tier. Onyx medals are required for level 16. Also: black

operation (op)

An activity organized by a group of agents to accomplish a specific objective, such as creating megafields or starbursts.

operator

An agent who oversees an operation on the intel map and provides guidance to those in the field. Also: dispatch, mission control

OPSEC

Short for operations security; measures undertaken by agents to ensure that information about their activities do not fall into the hands of the opposite faction.

OPS screen

The menu screen displayed when you press the ring-shaped button at the bottom-center of the scanner screen, which provides access to much of the scanner’s functionality. [article]

origin portal

The portal where you stand when creating a link. Compare: remote portal

ornament

A decoration which appears on a portal in the scanner or intel map to mark it as being significant in some way.

passcode

A string of characters which, when entered in the passcode field at the bottom of the store screen or on the intel map, grants items for your inventory, AP and/or XM. [article]

pick up

To retrieve an item from the ground. The item is transferred to your inventory. [article]

pin

  1. (noun) See: resonator
  2. (verb) To deploy a resonator.

pineapple

See: campfire

Pioneer

A medal awarded for capturing unique portals. [article]

platinum

The second-highest core medal tier. Platinum medals are required for levels 13 through 16.

portal

An aperture in the fabric of space through which XM is emitted into our world. Capturing enemy portals and defending friendly ones is Ingress’s principal mechanic. [article]

portal fracker

A powerup that doubles hack yield for a limited time. [article]

portal key

An item which is used for remote recharging and linking to a portal. [article]

portal shield

A mod which makes a portal’s resonators more resistant to enemy attacks. [article]

power cube

An item which replenishes your XM reserves when used or recycled. [article]

powerup

See: boost

premium item

An item that can only be acquired in the store with CMU.

Prime

See: Ingress Prime

profile

A screen in the scanner application that shows detailed information about a particular agent. You can see your own profile by tapping your icon at the upper-left of your scanner. You can see another agent’s profile by long-pressing their agent name and selecting “View Player Profile.” [article]

Purifier

A medal awarded for destroying enemy resonators.

quantum capsule (qcap)

A capsule variant which gradually duplicates items stored in them.

R_

The letter R followed by a number is a shorthand for expressing the level of a Resistance agent or portal. See: level, see also: E_, L_

raid

Going out Ingressing with a group of agents.

rail

A link created to protect a lane from blockers, usually running parallel to the lane.

range

The maximum distance at which something is permitted to happen. See: action range, blast radius, link range, remote recharge range, zap range

rare

The second-highest rarity. Items which can be found at rare rarity include capsules, force amps, heat sinks, link amps, multi-hacks, portal shields and turrets.

rarity

An indicator of how likely it is for an item to be dropped by a portal when it is hacked, and in the case of non-leveled items, its strength. The four rarity levels are very common, common, rare, and very rare. [article]

recharge

To transfer some of the XM from your scanner‘s reserves into a friendly portal’s resonators in order to replenish XM lost to decay or enemy attacks. [article]

recharge room

A gathering of agents remote recharging cluster portals during an anomaly to support their faction when they cannot be on-site.

Recharger

A medal awarded for recharging portals. [article]

Recon

A medal awarded for Operation Portal Recon agreements received while at a “Good” rating. [article]

recruit

To influence someone to become an Ingress agent.

recursion

  1. To start over at agent level 1 with zero AP, similar to the “prestige” mechanic found in other games. [article]
  2. (as a proper noun) The name of two past anomaly events.

recycle

To destroy an object in exchange for XM, which is added to your reserves. [article]

redeem

To enter a passcode into your scanner or intel map. [article]

red faction

For a long time, a hypothetical third faction was speculated to be added, originating largely from a faked video showing a red portal controlled by a player named __LOKI__. Eventually, the idea did become reality in the form of Machina.

regional scoring

A mechanism for computing scores for each cell. It is based on the average MU captured in the cell by each faction at each checkpoint in the septicycle. This can be found on the Scores screen under the Ops menu. [article]

remote portal

The portal to which you must have a key while standing at the origin portal when creating a link. Compare: origin portal

remote recharge

To recharge a portal when not standing within action range of it. This requires that you hold the portal’s key.

remote recharge range

The maximum distance at which you can remotely recharge a portal, which is the point at which recharge efficiency drops below 50%. Leveling up increases your remote recharge range.

reserves

See: XM reserves

resonator

An item that is used to capture and strengthen portals. [articleAlso: pin, reso

Resistance (RES)

One of the two factions. The Resistance faction believes that XM is too dangerous and that the Shapers may not be benevolent. They are represented by the color blue.

rolling 8s

See: mobile 8s

Sage

A medal awarded to recognize the fifth anniversary of Ingress. [article]

SBUL

See: SoftBank ultra link

scanner

The Ingress application you run on your mobile device. Originally developed by the NIA and operated by the Resistance, but a patch was later developed to enable Enlightened agents to use them for their own purposes. [article]

scoring window

See: measurement window

Scout

A medal given for performing portal scanning. [article]

scrape

To use a script to extract data from the intel map. This is against the Ingress terms of service and risks getting your account banned.

septicycle

A period of time used for regional scoring. It is 175 hours long and contains 35 checkpoints. The Scores screen under the OPS menu displays a trend chart showing the scoring over the course of the current septicycle and how much time remains in the septicycle. Also: cycle; see also: regional scoring

Shapers

An alien race that is apparently responsible for the existence of portals and XM in our world. The Enlightened believe the Shapers to be benevolent, while the Resistance think they’re dangerous.

shard

See: artifact

share

To send a screenshot from various parts of the Ingress application. [article]

shield

See: portal shield

silver

The second-lowest core medal tier. Silver medals are required for levels 9 through 12.

SITREP

Short for situation report, a document or video describing an operation and its results.

slot

  1. One of the eight spaces where a resonator can be deployed. Also: octant
  2. One of the four spaces where a mod can be installed.

smurf

Slang term for Resistance (blue being their faction color).

smurfling

Slang term for a new Resistance agent. See also: smurf

SoftBank Ultra Link (SBUL)

A link amp variant. [article]

Sojourner

A medal awarded for hacking portals every day. [article]

spam

  1. To perform an action quickly and repeatedly. Examples: “The smurfs are trying to defend the volatile. Spam the fire button!” “The frogs are spamming links from that portal. I think they’re doing a starburst op.”
  2. Messages in the COMM selling items or accounts (which is against the Ingress terms of service).

SpecOps

A medal awarded for completing missions. [article]

speedlock

A mechanism where going too fast causes actions in the scanner to fail. [article]

spine

A line of portals which are all connected to two other anchors to create layered fields.

sponsored item

An item which is branded by a sponsor company. Also: branded item

spoof

To falsify the location your scanner reports to the Ingress servers, in order to perform actions somewhere other than your actual location. Spoofing is considered cheating and is a good way to become very unpopular with your fellow agents. It is also against the Ingress terms of service and can get you banned.

starburst

Linking many portals to one portal to create a starburst pattern on the screen. Cross-faction starbursts can be created by using two or more portals at the center that are very close together.

store

A screen accessible under the OPS menu where agents can purchase premium items with chaotic matter units (CMU), and CMU with real-world currency.

streak

See: hackstreak

street sweeper

Slang term for the process run by Niantic that cleans up dropped items. It often will be mentioned when Niantic temporarily reduces the time to live for dropped items during anomalies.

submit

To send a prospective portal to be analyzed by Operation Portal Recon.

tadpole

Slang term for a new Enlightened agent. See: frog

teal

The color that results when Enlightened and Resistance control fields overlap. Often used when discussing cross-faction fielding operations and commonly expressed in the hashtag #TealOrNoDeal.

tears

(as in”frog tears” or “smurf tears”) Tongue-in-cheek slang for the sadness the opposing faction feels in response to one’s actions.

terms of service

The rules you agree to follow when becoming an Ingress agent. Niantic may ban your account if they discover that you have violated the ToS.

throw

To create (a link or field).

tier

One of the five levels of medals: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and onyx.

ToS

See: terms of service

training

A tutorial presented to new agents to teach them how to use the scanner. The training can started or stopped at any time from the settings screen.

Translator

A medal awarded for executing perfect glyph hacks.

transmuter

A mod which changes a portals hack yield to produce offensive or defensive items.

Trekker

A medal awarded for walking with the Ingress application open. [article]

turret

A mod which increases a portal’s attack rate and hit bonus when it attacks an enemy agent. [article]

ultra link

See: SoftBank ultra link

ultra strike

A weapon similar to an XMP, but which is more powerful and has a much narrower range. [article]

unclaimed

(said of a portal) See: neutral

upgrade

  1. (said of a resonator) To replace a resonator with one of a higher level.
  2. (said of a portal) To upgrade resonators on a portal to strengthen it.

Vanguard

  1. A medal awarded to recognize the third anniversary of Ingress. [article]
  2. A member of a small group of agents selected by Niantic to serve as agent advocates and give feedback.

vertex

See: anchor

very common

The lowest rarity. Items which can be found at very common rarity include media, portal keys, power cubes, resonators, ultra strikes, and XMP bursters.

very rare

The highest rarity. Items which can be found at the very rare rarity include beacons, flip cards, heat sinks, hypercubes, key lockers, link amps, multi-hacks, portal frackers, portal shields, quantum capsules, SoftBank ultra links, and transmuters.

virus

  1. See: JARVIS virus
  2. A somewhat inaccurate term for a flip card, even though only one of them is actually called a virus. See: flip card

volatile

A special cluster portal during an anomaly which is more valuable than other portals.

Wayfarer

A web application by Niantic that allows agents to review portal nominations and edits submitted by others. Previously called Operation Portal Recon or OPR. [article]

waypoint

A portal in a mission where you must perform some action.

weapon

An offensive item. Currently, the available weapons are XMP bursters, ultra strikes, and flip cards.

x-fac

See: cross-faction

XM

See: exotic matter

XM reserves

The XM held by your scanner. Your XM reserves are drawn from when you perform certain actions or are attacked by a hostile portal. They can be replenished by picking up XM, using power cubes, or recycling items.

XMP burster (XMP)

An area-effect weapon designed to destroy enemy resonators and mods. [article]

YOLO link

(short for “You Only Live/Link Once”) A link—especially a long one—thrown by an agent simply because they saw that they could, without considering how this link might interfere with the plans of other members of their faction. YOLO links are considered a hallmark of inexperienced or inconsiderate agents, but admit it: we’ve all done it. Compare: badger link (intentional and malicious), derp link (accidental)

zap

Retaliation by an enemy portal in response to hacking or attacking it. Zap drains XM from your reserves.

zap range

The maximum distance at which a portal can zap you.


Outdated Terms

The following terms are no longer in active use because they refer to things that are not part of the current Ingress application or meta. However, you might still run across them in older articles online, or agents might mention them when talking about past content.

AXA shield (AXA)

A discontinued branded portal shield variant. It was replaced by the Aegis shield.

Circle K power cube (Circle K)

An old, branded version of the hypercube.

Field Trip

Another application by Niantic Labs. Originally, some missions required you to open a waypoint in the Field Trip application. As Field Trip has been discontinued by Niantic, these waypoints will be marked completed automatically by the scanner when they are found in a mission.

Guardian

  1. A medal formerly awarded for maintaining control of a portal for consecutive days. It was retired on 2 April 2018. [article]
  2. A portal owned by an agent for the purpose of obtaining the Guardian medal.

Guardian hunting

The practice of seeking out an agent’s Guardian portal and neutralizing it, with the intention of denying that agent a Guardian medal. Opinions were mixed within the Ingress community with regards to this practice. Some agents considered it to be poor sportsmanship, while others considered it a legitimate tactic. Using an automated script to assist with Guardian hunting was much less popular, as it constituted a violation of the Ingress Terms of Service and was considered cheating. On 2 April 2018, in response to guardian hunting tools within both factions, Niantic retired the Guardian medal.

Ingress Report

An official, in-universe YouTube series hosted by Susanna Moyer. Its content is considered to be canon lore, though not necessarily without spin. The show is currently on hiatus, and there is no indication that it will return, especially since its host was absorbed into the Tecthulhu and is presumed dead. A link to the series still appears on the Intel Map, however.

Lawson power cube (Lawson)

An old, branded version of the hypercube.

lube

Slang term for Lawson power cube.

MUFG capsule (MUFG)

A discontinued branded variant of the quantum capsule.

Operation Portal Recon (OPR)

Original name of Wayfarer

portal monkey

A somewhat pejorative term for an individual employed by Niantic who was responsible for approval of portal submissions, usually uttered by a person who disagrees with their decision. Niantic had the last laugh with the release of Operation Portal Recon, which turns the agents themselves into portal monkeys.

Recruiter

A medal awarded for recruiting other agents, which has since been retired. [article]

Scanner [REDACTED]

The version of the scanner which existed before Ingress Prime, released as a separate application. It was provided by Niantic as a stopgap until certain features missing from Ingress Prime at its initial release were implemented.

Seer

A medal awarded for submitting portals which are accepted. This medal has been retired. [article]