Hopefully, after reading this guide, you will stop acting as a hacker when you are an agent. Enjoy!

Risking making this guide unreadably big, i decided to add some more tips about common matchmaking games (meaning with mediocre or new players).

I will focus only on actions and not words since they are quite often misleading (every word can look suspicious to somebody).

• Votes
  
  
  • Hackers sometimes accept nodes they are not in. No agent should "ever" do that.
    
    No, "for testing" is not a good reason for an agent to accept a team he is not in, nor is "for info," "its just 1st node dude," "we cant avoid hacks anyway," or "hurry i have to eat."
    
    If you are an agent and not in the team, then you either know there is a hacker in the team for sure, or it is very probable. Is it hammer? No? Then, mouse over the refuse button and click it.
    
    
  • Refusing Hammer (see end of guide for definition of hammer)
    
    Yes, sometimes you forget and refuse hammer as agent. Hackers are counting on it. When it is hammer, make sure to scream it in caps, and spam it at least 10 times so no one can say, "Oh, it was hammer?"
    
    
  • Asking What to Vote
    
    Only hackers need to know what others are voting so they won't stand out from the others. If you are an agent, and you don't know what to vote, then rewatch the tutorial, or read some steam guides, but don't ask others during the vote.
    
    
  • Just look for votes that clearly make no sense; there is no need to pressure them. Just ask "why acc," "why ref," "are you mental," etc. If you are too aggressive, they'll become more careful and adapt their play.
  
  
• Proposals
  
  
  • Hackers almost always leave their hacker buddy / buddies outside of their proposal.
    That's why it's a good idea to see everyone's proposal before accepting a mission. It's easy to remember all proposals for all nodes in 5 or maybe 6 player games, but for bigger games, you may want to take notes.
    
    Also, that's why as hacker, you should try to signal your teammate from the start of the game because the best thing you can do is go in a mission together and only hack once.
    (Important: The "rule" is that if 1 of the 2 hackers has been in a mission before, he repeats the choice he made in that mission of either securing or hacking)
    
    If you know as hacker that your proposal will get rejected or you are confident you will manage to avoid a double hack, you should put your hacker buddy in, unless you are a revealed hacker. Then, you should suggest the perfect agent team to make it look bad.
    
    
  • Indecisiveness or asking others who to pick is a really bad play for agent and a really newbie play for hacker. Highlight your picks, watch reactions, and just before the timer ends, adapt your picks, and propose.
    
    Your proposal is not that important since you should probably refuse it, if it's early (0/5, 1/5, or 2/5 rejections), to see reactions in the following proposals.
    
    
  • Signaling
    
    Sometimes it happens that 2 or more hackers are in the same team proposal and it also happens that they are not aware of the "rule" that i mentioned above or that the "rule" does not apply. In that case they will try to signal each other on who is going to hack and who is going to secure with some seemingly innocent phrases.
    
    You should keep an eye out for these phrases as agent (to catch the hackers) and as hacker (to figure out what your teammate intends to do). Do not use such phrases as agent, not even as a joke, because you may doom yourself.
    
    Examples:
    
    "Be nice and don't hack"
    "I hope you guys won't hack"
    "Please don't frame me"
    "I am agent i cannot hack"
    "i promise i will secure"
    
    (let me know in the comments if you have other smart tricks ;) )
  
  
• Play From Everyone's POV (advanced)
  
  
  • Sometimes hackers do not pay enough attention to the game, so their votes and especially their proposals appear to be random. This is because they know who hacked what and don't think, "Based on the hacks, the hackers are player A and B or player C and D," so they end up suggesting a team with players A and C in it, which is completely illogical from their point of view.
    
    Example
    
    5 Player Game (A B C D E)
    Node 1: A B - Compromised
    Node 2: B C D - Compromised
    
    Assuming only one hacker was in the hacked missions:
    Player C POV: The hackers are A & D or B & E
    Player D POV: The hackers are A & C or B & E
    
    Now, if one of them puts A & E in the same team for no apparent reason, then he is a hacker that hasn't been paying attention (or a dense agent).
    
    
  • To avoid this as hacker, you should always be alert and know who the possible hackers are from your POV based on previous hacks. To convince the others, you must first convince yourself you are an agent.

So here are the things i couldnt fit in the previous section

• Tempo of the game
  
  The faster the game progresses, the less information agents get (because less talking and fewer proposals happen) and less time to think about it.
  
  So it may be a good idea to let the timer run out when proposing / voting to take your time and reread the chat or look at the vote history and think on who the hackers might be.
  
  If someone asks you why you are taking so long, type "Not quite my tempo".
  
  
• Agents should often refuse even when in the team
  
  This is an extension of the previous point of "game tempo".
  
  No reason to accept as agent, even if you are part of the proposed team, when the rejections are only 0/5 1/5 or 2/5. Are you really that sure that the proposed team is the perfect one? no? then refuse, to vote test and see other proposals, plus more time for chatting.
  
  
• Encourage people to pass indefinitely
  
  Especially when hackers have already hacked 2 nodes (and you are agent).
  
  This is taking the point of "game tempo" to the next level. If everyone passes, the game can last forever, use that time to think back on past proposals and votes and form arguments to convince the others.
  
  Also don't be afraid to pass even when a hacked node is not game losing, you can still get reactions by simply highlighting the players. You have limited proposals, use them carefully.
  
  
• The Dummy role (advanced)
  
  Important Not all hackers should play that role.
  (At least one hacker should remain that acts as agent)
  
  A dummy hacker / confirmed hacker / revealed hacker is a hacker that no agent trusts, hopefully before you get to this point as a hacker you have already hacked 1 or even better 2 nodes by e.g. accepting when not in the team and your buddy hacker is.
  
  At this point you must demonstrate random behavior, meaning that sometimes you should
  
  
  • Propose leaving your hacker buddy out (and yourself, you are revealed)
    
    This will make the perfect agent team look bad.
    
    
  • Accept when the perfect team is going to a mission (meaning no hacker is in it)
    
    This will make the perfect agent team look bad too.
    
    If the agents are not that bad, they will try to bait hackers by proposing teams and then refusing to see if the revealed hacker likes the team.
    
    Do not say you will accept as hacker when the perfect agent team is about to go on a mission, just accept and hope that agents are vote testing, if they aren't vote testing and all agents in the team accept, then your refusal will confirm there was no hacker in there.
  
  
• Passing Hammer (advanced) (see end of guide for definition of hammer)
  
  Always be aware of where the hammer will land and be prepared to pass if you deem it necessary.
  You don't lose anything by highlighting your picks and waiting a bit before passing, you should usually include the person who will get the hammer "planting" the idea of your proposal into his head.
  
  Did someone just pass? ask him why, he may have passed so that his hacker teammate will get the hammer or perhaps he is an agent who doesn't want person X to have hammer or just doesn't want to waste a proposal.
  
  Passing hammer to an agent is a good way to make him like you (if you have hammer, never pass). If an agent has figured out your hacker team, make sure he doesn't get hammer.

After playing a few games, you will surely meet the special kind of humans that are agents but behave like hackers. Sadly, you'll only know after you've lost the game.

It's important that you remain calm and leave that experience behind you.

I hope the wall of text above was helpful to you and that you will not tell your hacker friends about it ;)
Rate it and leave feedback in the comments.

*Hammer = If 5 team proposals get rejected in a row, hackers win the game, you can see how many proposals have been rejected on the right middle of the screen, when the number reaches 4/5 it's called "Hammer" meaning all agents should accept the current team proposal or the game is lost, the number resets after a mission