So I've finished the first play through of the game and loved it! I pretty much immediately started up a newgame+ with 9S .

The problem is I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Despite being a little over leveled the combat has become drawn out and the hacking mini game feels so very tedious. But if I don't use the hacking every encounter takes forever to finish. Am I missing something with the hacking? Or is this how I will have to play the entire game this time around?

What am I doing wrong?

9S can still kill stuff with just weapons, and if you're leveled enough and/or your weapons are upgraded enough it can be more efficient than hacking, but hacking can't be and shouldn't be ignored entirely. There are mandatory hacking sections and some enemies are definitely way easier to just hack. (Like the flying snake bots.)

If you can't kill anything without hacking them make sure to upgrade weapons and use better plug-ins. (Go upgrade some weapons to lv 4 if you haven't already.) But hacking is going to be a significant element in the game regardless, so best get used to it.

Hacking is pretty OP actually, though if you straight up dislike that minigame you're kinda out of luck. Pod programs (I used Mirage a ton before finding fancier ones) are also very strong.

Like @zeik said, do make sure you've leveled a weapon (even lv 3 is fine to start...) & sorted out your chips. TBH 9S is way more effective with weapons than he should be so you can ignore hacking in most encounters if you wish. One aspect of hacking that may not be clear yet is if you hack a machine that didn't see you, you can remote-control it (and then use this to hack more enemies as they don't suspect you...which can be a quick way past higher level enemies).

I see. Thank you guys for your help. I do have lvl 3 weapons, I must have missed where you can upgrade to lvl 4. I figured it would turn up but then I stumbled into the end of the game.

I'll try to work out a better plug-in system, and try out the remote-control stuff, see if that helps. If it still feels tiresome I might just jump down to easy and use some of those mods for the hacking.

9S sucks to play as. That playthrough was painful, especially since most of it is just repeated. Worth getting through though.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend putting a Stun or Combust chip for hacking. Hacking becomes crowd-control. Even successfully hacking the easier enemies (with easier hacking sequences) would incapacitate and damage the others en masse.

I found it easier, faster, and cleaner way to deal with groups of enemies. Plus, I would accrue so much healing items, because 9S doesn't need to be healed with an Auto-Heal.

Obviously, I personally enjoyed "hacking", and wished 2B could do it. If you don't, hopefully Stun/Auto-Heal tip works for you.

There are some added bits in 9S's story perspective, but it's what comes AFTER that makes it... truly interesting.