Lockpick

Lockpick is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, and Fallout 3 skill. It is the skill of opening locks without the proper key.

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics
The use of lockpicks or the Expanded Lock Pick Set for mechanical locks, the electronic lockpicks or the Electronic Lock Pick MK II for electronic locks will greatly enhance this skill.

Initial Level: Starting Lockpick skill is equal to 20%  (1% x the average of your Perception and Agility). Average characters will have a 25% skill.

Fallout 3
In Fallout 3, picking a lock on a door or container takes the form of a mini game. In order to pick a lock, you must have a skill high enough for the difficulty of the lock, and you must posses one or more bobby pins. Bobby pins are weightless items, often found in first aid kits and locked containers. In the mini game, you insert a bobby pin and a screwdriver (a free, weightless item which does not appear in your inventory) into the keyhole of the lock, rotating the pin to trip the tumblers in the lock, and the screwdriver to turn the lock, in place of a key. If you try to open the lock with the screwdriver while the bobby pin is in the wrong position you might snap the pin, requiring you to try again with a new one.

(PC) First, there is the bobby pin. You can wiggle it from left, over the top, to the right. Choose a random position. Now, tap A gently, and release it. The pin could wiggle. In that case, move it to another position. If the pin did not wiggle, press A a little longer each time. You don't need the W, S or D. (But you can use any of the four keys. They do the same thing.) If the bobby pin starts to wiggle, the position is wrong. Choose another position. Repeat till success. If you don't want to break your bobby pin, stop touching A as soon as the bobby pin starts moving: just put it somewhere else, and try again. A few notes for newbies:
 * 1) Don't move the bobby pin while moving the screwdriver. The point is simply to have the bobby pin in the right place when the screwdriver reaches it. If the pin wiggles (instead of the locking coming open), the pin is in the wrong place, so release the screwdriver immediately. (That's all there is to it, ultimately! Read on.)
 * 2) As has been said, you only need to use the A key, despite the game directions.
 * 3) A lock that is Very Easy may (or may not, depending on your skill) open simply by moving the screwdriver while leaving the bobby pin straight up. The difficulty level defines how "close" the bobby pin needs to be along the arc of the lock (the upper half of a circle), and Very Easy may be wide enough for the whole arc, depending on your skill.
 * 4) The screwdriver moves faster if your pin is closer to the right position; conversely, the pin starts wiggling immediately if you are far from the right position - and it's time to try some other position. So, always be ready to immediately release the screwdriver as soon as you get any resistance (wiggling) on the bobby pin.
 * 5) The magic number for lockpicking is "3". Even if you are very sensitive about stopping pushing the screwdriver when the pin wiggles, your bobby pin will most probably break on your third unsuccessful attempt, so if you are running low on bobby pins, just quit and retry after the second time, restoring your pin to its full "strength"; similar to attempting to hack after too many unsuccesful attempts save one. the lock may also change the position the pin needs to be in when retrying the same lock
 * 6) Now you're a master locksmith! Go forth and open sesame.

(Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3) The position of the bobby pin is controlled with one stick and the screwdriver with the other. The controller will vibrate with the wiggling of the bobby pin. As you find a position nearer the sweet spot you will be able to rotate the screwdriver a little further until you are successful.

Forcing a lock is not necessary with this method (it's also rather pointless as any lock with even a decent chance of opening with force will be fairly easy to pick anyway; you run the risk of getting locked out, unless you have the Infiltrator perk).

Very Hard Locks
There are a number of Very Hard doors in Fallout 3, which require a Lockpick skill of 100 to open them (and a steady gaming hand).

Some bring great rewards, some bring nothing but the experience of opening them.

For possible exploits(?) to get around 100-skill locks, see the Victory Rifle page.

Locations:

The Broken Bow of Rivet City at the west end of the ship. Watch out for the frag mine on the left as soon as you enter. This door can also be unlocked by activating a flip switch just on the other side of the door if you enter the Broken Bow the long way (underwater entrance).

Fort Bannister - In a bunker to the right just as you enter the front entrance.

Mama Dolce's Food Distribution - 2 doors on an isolated catwalk with blank walls behind them.

Megaton Armory

Megaton, Mister Burke's House Megaton, desk in water processing plant

Wheaton Armory - In a very radioactive bunker with an excellent stash of weapons behind it.

Minefield Small Model Home - inside the Gibson House  (The key to this model house can be found inside the Capitol Post building, in L'Enfant Plaza, on the body of Gibson, along with a note)

Roosevelt Academy Roosevelt Library

Old Olney sewers has one.

National Archives along the "front door" (long way) entrance to Button Gwinnett's office.

Museum of History on the 2nd floor.

Rockbreaker's Last Gas - Gun Locker in the Abandoned Shack at the top of the cliff. Contains the Victory Rifle.

L.O.B. Enterprises - Safe in the CEOs office.

Springvale School on the lower level - leads to an unfinished tunnel towards Vault 101

Fort Constantine's bomb storage - quite a few 'goodies' for the trigger happy vault dweller, or anyone looking to take a fat man and tell the tale

MDPL Mass Relay Station Safe inside

VAPL-58 Power Station Safe inside, also north of it, inside a walled up cable tower (mininuke there as well)

Grayditch Dumpster, behind the diner.

Corvega Factory South of it, a footlocker in a flipped over truck trailer. (north of this truck is a dumpster you can jump into from above, for a Big Book of Science)

Arlington House The model house inside the first room of the house.

South of Dukov's Place, in a small enclosed raider camp. Ammo box beind a counter.

Commentary
In Fallout 3, your Lockpick skill determines which locks the game will allow you to (try to) pick. Your skill must be at least the lock rating to try, and locks are rated at 25% increments: 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. Thus, there is little reason to invest more points in this skill beyond the level of lock you want to have access to.

You can increase your Lockpick skill by finding the Bobblehead - Lockpick and reading Tumblers Today.

This style of lockpicking is quite similar to that found in another title, "Thief: Deadly Shadows".

Remember that some armor grants +5%, so you can stop 5 points short of one of these levels if you intend to carry this spare around.

It is unknown whether there are any additional dialog choices granted by the lockpick skill.

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