The Hack The Box platform provides a gamified, intuitive environment for cybersecurity training. The platform offers a wealth of challenges in the form of virtual machines that simulate real-world security issues and vulnerabilities.

HTB Labs Content Categories

Hack The Box offers several different types of training environments:

Machines: These are instances of vulnerable virtual machines. They host different operating systems (such as Linux, Windows, and FreeBSD) and come in four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Insane. You can check out the article below for further information on how to play Hack The Box's Machines:

How to play Machines
Challenges: These are bite-sized applications designed for practicing specific penetration testing techniques. Challenges are categorized by difficulty: Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Insane. For more information on how to play Hack The Box's Challenges, please check out the article below:

How to play Challenges
Sherlocks: These are defensive investigatory scenarios designed to provide hands-on practice replicating real-life Cloud, DFIR, Malware Analysis, SOC, and Threat Intelligence scenarios. For more information on how to play Hack The Box's Sherlocks, please check out the article below:

How to play Sherlocks
Pro Labs: These consist of enclosed corporate networks of Machines. They use different operating systems, security configurations, vulnerabilities, and exploitation paths to simulate a realistic corporate environment. For more information on how to play Hack The Box's Pro Labs, please check out the article below:

How to play Pro Labs
Retired Content: These are Machines and Challenges that are no longer active on the free servers. One new Machine is released every week, and one older Machine is retired at the same time. Completing retired content does not award you Points or Ownership progress.

Ranks, Points, and Game Elements of Hack The Box

You can climb the Global Rankings of Hack The Box by earning Points, Badges, First Bloods, and Respect Points. These will allow you to increase your Hacker Rank. If your profile is set to public, your rank will be visible to anyone who accesses it.

This can be changed at any time on your HTB Labs' Account Settings:

How Points are Awarded

You earn Points by completing active Machines, Challenges, or Fortresses. The number of Points awarded is based on the complexity of the task; harder tasks reward you with more Points. Your total Points determine your position on the global and regional scoreboards.

Points are allocated based on a number of variables, such as user/root owns and challenges completed. Each Machine/Challenge displays the number of Points earned upon completion.

Points are calculated using the following Points Formula:

(userOwnPoints + systemOwnPoints + challengeOwnPoints + fortressOwnPoints + userBloodPoints + systemBloodPoints + challengeBloodPoints) * ownershipPercentage

It's worth noting that while Points are directly correlated to your global ranking, they are not what dictates your Hacker Rank.

How Ranks are Achieved

Your Hacker Rank is determined by your total percentage of "Ownership" of active Machines and Challenges. The required Ownership percentages for each rank are:

Noob: 0% or more
Script Kiddie: Greater than 5%
Hacker: Greater than 20% (Reaching this rank unlocks access to Fortresses)
Pro Hacker: Greater than 45%
Elite Hacker: Greater than 70%
Guru: Greater than 90%
Omniscient: 100%

As you level up, you gain certain perks and features. For example, Fortresses unlock at Hacker Rank.

The Ownership Percentage (%) Formula can be seen here:

(ActiveSystemOwns + (ActiveUserOwns / 2) + (ActiveChallengeOwns / 10)) / (activeMachines + (activeMachines / 2) + (activeChallenges / 10)) * 100

How Retirement Affects Your Rank

Only Active Machines and Active Challenges offer Points or Ownership upon completion. Active Machines or Active Challenges can be identified by not having any available public write-ups on the website.

When a Machine or Challenge is retired (which happens every weekend), the points attributed to any user for solving that specific task will turn into 0. This means your total Points and Ownership percentage will drop by the value of the retired content. This, however, does not mean that anyone loses their rank, as the user has already proven their skills to achieve said rank.

Example of Rank Protection during Retirement:

If you hold the "Hacker" rank and have 0% progress towards the "Pro Hacker" rank, you will not be de-ranked to "Script Kiddie" when a machine retires. You will keep your Hacker rank, and your progress towards Pro Hacker will remain at 0%.

First Bloods

A "First Blood" is awarded to the very first person to solve a newly released Machine or Challenge. Earning a First Blood gives you a special display name on the content's dedicated page and awards more points than a standard completion.

Points and the Leaderboard are updated once a day and not in real-time.

Points that show up on the profile get updated the moment you own a Machine and the moment a Machine retires.

Respect Points

Respect Points are awarded by other community members. If you appreciate a user for creating a Machine or Challenge, for being helpful, or any other reason you may see fit, you can visit their profile and click the "Respect" button to award them a point.

HTB Free, HTB VIP+, and HTB PRO Accounts

Hack The Box offers the following main account tiers:

HTB Free Accounts: You have access to the 20 weekly Active Machines and Active Challenges.
HTB VIP+ Accounts: You have access to all available Hack The Box Machines, including both Active and Retired content. HTB VIP+ members also gain access to the official write-ups and video walkthroughs for each Retired Machine.
HTB PRO Accounts: HTB's all-inclusive HTB Labs subscription, combining full HTB VIP+ access with 10 flagship Pro Lab environments in one membership, starting September 30th, 2026.

To manage your subscription or purchase HTB VIP+ access, navigate to the Billing & Plans page from your account drop-down menu:

This is where you will find your current available Hack The Box Credits, which you can use to purchase services, as well as the status of your Subscriptions for our Labs Platform [app.hackthebox.com]:

If you'd like to find out more about HTB VIP+, you can always visit this link or click on the Upgrade button next to the HTB VIP+ Subscription entry on this page:

If you currently hold an HTB VIP+ Subscription, you can click on "Upgrade to Pro" under your current VIP+ subscription, and select the plan. Next you can click on "Upgrade", which will allow you to change your current plan:

Navigating the Dashboard and Progress Analysis

The Dashboard

When you log in, your landing page is the Dashboard. From here, you can navigate the platform using the left-side menu or access your My Profile page via the top-right drop-down menu (or the single person icon on the left-side panel) to edit your settings.

One more important tab is the Manage Account tab, which you can access from the drop-down menu on the top-right-hand side of your screen. This is where you will find various settings related to your HTB Account, which can be managed from there.

To learn more about managing your HTB Account, please visit the following article:

Setting Up Your Account

Progress Analysis

The Progress Analysis page gives you a detailed look at your performance:

Left-Center Panel: Displays your Profile Rank, Global Ranking Position, Statistics for Points, Flags and First Bloods, and your overall progress percentage.
Right-Center Panel: Shows your current Weekly Streak based on the new HTB XP System:

You can read more about HTB's current XP System by clicking on the button below:

Hack The Box XP System
Lower Panels: The "For You" tab provides recommendations for your next Machine, Sherlock, or Challenge. The "In Progress" section shows partially completed tasks, and the Favorites tab shows any machines you have added as favorites.
Bottom Panel (Latest News & Resources): Displays community features (such as Hack The Box's Discord Server and Blog), our Resource Hub, and a "Latest News" section for HTB announcements and updates.

Badges

Badges are awarded when you accomplish specific feats within the Hack The Box community. Your earned Badges appear on your public and community profiles, along with a short description of the achievement. To view your Badges, navigate to your Profile and click on the Badges tab.

Introduction to HTB Labs