The fate of mankind is in your hands

The world around you is not what it seems -- something is very wrong. An unknown force called Exotic Matter (XM) was discovered by a team of scientists at CERN in Switzerland. The origin and purpose of XM is still unknown, but it is believed that XM has been influencing the human mind in unknown ways for centuries, if not millennia.
 
Some see XM as a malicious force threatening humanity, while others embrace its powers to transcend mankind. Choose your mission: either defend the human race by resisting the effects of XM, or assist in the enlightenment of mankind by harnessing this energy. With the fate of humanity at stake, you must choose a FACTION, or team to battle with. You may align with either the Resistance Faction or the Enlightened Faction.
 
Your Faction will strive to channel the power of XM by taking control of PORTALS, or points of interest in the real world. Portals often manifest themselves at local parks, tourist attractions, historical sites, and other places believed to influence human thought. Your Faction takes ownership of those locations by deploying RESONATORS on the Portals. Resonators are items that tune and amplify the naturally occurring XM, causing the Portal to grow in power - Deploy more Resonators to a Portal to make it stronger, and therefore, more difficult for the rival Faction to seize.
 
After you have captured a Portal for your Faction, you want to move on to creating a connected network of Portals controlled by your Fraction. You can LINK PORTALS together to create an even more powerful source of XM energy. When three Portals are linked together to form a triangle, a CONTROL FIELD is established over the geographic areas within. Control Fields are measured by MIND UNITS (MU), or the size of the human population that lives under the Control field. Because XM is believed to influence human thought, the larger the population within a Control Field area, the more Mind Units are awarded to your Faction.
 
Your ultimate goal is to collaborate with members of your Faction to claim more Mind Units than the opposing Faction. In summary, here is how you complete this mission:
  • Capture Portals by deploying Resonators
  • Connect two Portals together to create a link
  • Connect three or more Portals together to create Control Fields
  • Earn Mind Units for your Faction.

You now know the basics. The rest of this intel briefing will walk you through everything else you need to know before embarking on your journey.