Flip Card

Flip Card
Category	Weapons
Rarity(s)	Very Rare
XM Cost	1 000 - 8 000 XM (Depends on portal level)
Recycle Value	100 XM

The ADA Refactor  and JARVIS Virus  items are collectively known as Flip Cards, as they instantly "flip" a Portal to the opposite faction. The two items' effects are identical; they differ only in appearance and in the Portals they can target. Flip Cards were introduced in Update 1.26.0.

Both Flip Cards can be used by agents of either faction. Community studies suggest that their drop rates are both 1 in 2500 hacking rolls, regardless of the faction of the agent and portal. Using a Flip Card on a Level 8​ Portal requires more XM than any other single action in the game.

When activated from the Ops menu, the Flip Card allows the agent to select the target Portal from within his or her 40m area of influence. Once confirmed, the XM cost is deducted, the item is consumed, and the following effects are enacted:

• The target portal is switched to the opposite alignment
• The target portal's resonators are fully recharged
• Any Links and Control Fields held by the Portal are broken, with no AP awarded, keys dropped, or stats incremented
• If the Portal's new alignment matches the user's, the user's name will be applied to each of its Resonators and Portal Mods
• If the Portal's original alignment matched the user's, the item's name will be applied to each of its Resonators and Portal Mods
• For 60 minutes afterwards, any attempts to use another Flip Card on the Portal will fail and destroy the Flip Card. No warning will be given in advance - the Flip Card and XM will be wasted.
• Any Longest Portal Held streaks (Guardian Medal) attached to the portal immediately end
• The owner of each Resonator, Mod, and the Portal itself is notified that the item or Portal has been destroyed

The term 'Flip Card' is the term used for either weapon, found in the APK for the game.

XM Costs

Using a Flip Card requires a tremendous amount of XM. The cost depends on the level of the target portal. Because the XM can't reach 0 unless being attacked by enemy Portals, an agent of Level 6​ or lower can't flip portals two or more levels higher than his or her own.

Portal Level	XM Cost
L1	1 000 XM
L2	2 000 XM
L3	3 000 XM
L4	4 000 XM
L5	5 000 XM
L6	6 000 XM
L7	7 000 XM
L8	8 000 XM

Strategy – Flipping an Enemy Portal

The most straightforward use of a Flip Card is to attack an enemy Portal and instantly align it. Some common roles for this use include:

• Resource Access – Turning a high-level enemy portal to an agent's own side allows the agent to 'farm' an increased number of items from it, especially if the enemy applied high-quality Heat Sinks and Multi-hacks first
• Resource Denial – If the enemy is aggressively recharging a high-level Portal while others 'farm' it, flipping it will reduce the number items they can acquire and force them to expend Power Cubes
• Link/Field Destruction – If an anchor portal is heavily shielded and there isn't enough time to destroy it, flipping it will instantly take down its links and fields. This is especially crucial in scoring ops, to prevent the fields from standing through checkpoint
• Guardian Destruction – Flipping an enemy portal ends the Longest Portal Held streak, instantly denying an enemy a hard-fought medal
• Inoculation – Flipping the Portal prevents it from being flipped again for 60 minutes. If an enemy Portal is flipped 59 minutes before a checkpoint, it can be used as an anchor that must be painstakingly and manually attacked to bring the fields down. Coordinating inoculation is a crucial part of Anomaly strategy.
• Hijacking – If enemy players visit an area and don't plan to return, flipping their portals can allow an isolated group of players to acquire extra-high-level gear and superior mods

While flipping an enemy Portal can be a powerful play, a savvy agent will first consider the caveats:

• An enemy agent can simply flip the Portal back after 60 minutes
• The Portal will be immune to damage from the agent's own team, forcing him to wait and flip it back to permanently destroy it
• All Resonators and Mods will be under the agent's own name, which usually locks him or her out from deploying new Resonators or applying new Mods
• If the Portal was flipped to take advantage of its Multi-Hacks or Heat Sinks, the enemy can easily destroy them

Strategy - Flipping a Friendly Portal

Enemy Flip Cards are far from useless - they have subtle and highly technical consequences that grant an agent a highly versatile toolkit.

• Lane Clearing - Flipping a friendly Portal is the only way for a player to break the Links attached to it. This is a critical role in ops, where incidental friendly Links often block a key lane.
• Defense - Flipping a friendly Portal makes it immune to all attacks, and grants it a 60-minute lockout period against flipping. When done less than two hours before a checkpoint, it can severely reduce the amount of time opponents have to interfere with an op.
• Mod Upgrading - Flipping a friendly Portal, attacking it with Ultra Strikes, and flipping back is the only way to destroy and replace a Mod while leaving the Portal intact.
• Rapid Key Farming - Flip Cards can be used to hack a Portal nine times in mere seconds. Hack the Portal, then apply a Heat Sink. Repeat four times. Then, flip the Portal, destroy it, and do it once more. The technique allows an agent to acquire many Keys to the same Portal in an extremely short period of time.
• Trolling - Destroy an enemy's favorite Portal, deploy eight Level 1​ Resonators on it at minimum distance, and work with a friend to fill the Mod slots with Link Amps. Then, flip the Portal. The opponent is now left with an embarrassing, vulnerable Portal that can't be Modded, and will usually need to waste a Flip Card of his or her own to destroy it. This is known as 'Pineappling', 'Campfiring', or 'Grenading' and is one of the dirtiest and most hilarious tricks in the game.
• Upgrading - Five agents deploy Level 8​ Resonators on a Portal, then flip it. Later, one agent flips it back and three of the others put fresh Level 8​ Resonators in the slots, completing a Level 8​ Portal when eight players aren't available
• Guardian Setup - Flipping a friendly portal to the enemy side and then back to friendly causes a single agent's name to be applied to each of the Portal's Resonators. This forces enemy players to completely destroy the Portal, and every one of its Resonators, to deny the agent his or her medal.

While flipping a friendly Portal has many uses, the thoughtful agent will consider the ways it could backfire:

• The enemy can simply wait out the 60-minute lockout, then flip the Portal back and destroy it
• The Portal's owner, as well as the owners of any Resonators and Mods attached to it, will be notified that the agent destroyed his or her work. Be careful, since the Portal could be his or her Guardian or contributing to a Longest Field Held streak.
• Enemy agents can still add Mods to the Portal, so prepare to get your Portal back with a few extra Link Amps
• Enemy agents can hack the Portal and gain significant numbers of items

Trivia

The placeholder names __ADA__ and __JARVIS__ have profiles, visible only by long-pressing the name in a Portal info screen. Because they have no gameplay, the profiles are empty except for Longest Portal Held and the Links and Fields that others create with "their" Portals.