Hacking



Hacking is exploiting a weakness in a computer system or computer network. This way to access terminals is present in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 4.

Overview
You will be presented with a list of words, all of the same character lengths, interposed with random characters. The length of the words is determined by the difficulty of the lock. The number of words you get is determined by how high your Science skill is (for Fallout 3 or New Vegas) or how high your Intelligence is (for Fallout 4). One of the words is the correct password, and your goal is to guess it.

You choose a word by clicking on it. If you didn't guess correctly, the terminal will display "x/y correct" where x is the number of correct letters, and y is the word length. A letter is correct only if it is in the right spot. For example, if the password is "RELEASED" and you choose "DETECTOR" then you will be told that there are 2/8 correct because there are 'E's in the 2nd and 4th place for both. The words have other letters in common, like 'R', but it is in the first spot in one word, and the last in the other. You have four attempts to select the correct password: if you fail, in Fallout 3/New Vegas you will be permanently locked out; however, if you have the Computer Whiz perk, you will get another try. In Fallout 4, you will only temporarily be locked out, for ten seconds.

There are also things you can do with the characters that are not part of words. Clicking on matching brackets (i.e. [] {} <>, even with other characters between, but not a whole word between) can remove a dud password or reset the number of remaining guesses to four. The brackets must be of the same type and on the same line. Although you cannot match brackets with a whole word between them, you can match brackets separated by the dots that appear when a dud word is removed ( <.......> ). Also, two or more opening brackets can be matched to a single closing bracket ("[ [ ]" on a line gives you two chances), but the opposite is not true ("[ ] ]" only gives you one chance). When you scroll across this type of entry from left-to-right, the entire entry will be highlighted letting you know if you've found one or not.

Previous choices are displayed on the right-hand side of the terminal. To get to the hacking mini-game quickly, you can click the startup screen on the terminal to skip to the next screen. Click once more to load the hack screen instantly. (Note: in Fallout: New Vegas if you back out after your first hack attempt prior to "locking" computer, you must wait even longer for the initial key in prior to the mini-game)

Fallout 3/New Vegas
In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, when the player begins to hack, the Terminal screen will display some words and several symbols. Every word is the same length, and clicking on one will tell the player how many letters out of their selection are in the right spot. For example, if the correct password was "benign" and the player clicked "design," the Terminal would return "4/6 correct." If the player guesses incorrectly four times, they will be locked out of the Terminal. However, the Computer Whiz perk will allow the player to unlock the Terminal and attempt the hack again. Aside from the words on the screen, the player will also be presented with several ASCII symbols. If the player can find groups of symbols in between sets of brackets, such as []. {}. . and <>, selecting them will remove duds, or incorrect passwords, and replenish the number of attempts the player has before being locked out. A table of Terminal difficulties, their skill requirements, and XP rewards can be seen on the right.

In Fallout 3, for the Data Miner achievement/trophy, you need to find 50 terminals to hack.

In Fallout: New Vegas, for the Hack the Mojave achievement/trophy you must hack 25 terminals

Fallout 4
Hacking in Fallout 4 works largely the same as in previous installments. Several words and symbols are displayed on the locked terminal, with word length dependent on the terminal's lock level. Similarly, finding complete bracket sets (e.g. "<>") will either remove incorrect words or reset the number of tries. However, unlike in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, expending all four guesses only temporarily locks the player character out, allowing another attempt a short time later. Further, with the removal of skills, terminal hacking is instead based on perks with locked terminals having different tiers.

Hacking is determined by the Hacker perk, with terminal locks being of the Novice, Advanced, Expert, or Master tiers. They may allow one to disable or enable turrets, alarm systems, and various other defenses or traps. The fourth-level rank of the perk prevents all lockouts, the science bobblehead allows one extra password guess, and the Close to Metal perk both allows one more guess and reduces lockout time by 50%.

In Fallout 4, for the RobCo's Worst Nightmare achievement/trophy, the Sole Survivor must hack 50 terminals.