Fallout 3/Hacking Guide
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Contents |
Introduction
In Fallout 3 you will encounter many computer terminals. Successfully hacking a computer terminal can give you access to nearby safes, turret systems, or even privileged information.
Levels of Hacking
Hacking is directly related to your Science Skill. Depending on the skill, you are allowed to hack certain difficulties of terminals.
| Terminal Difficulty | Required Science Skill | Password Length | XP Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very Easy | 0 | 4-5 | 20 |
| Easy | 25 | 6-8 | 30 |
| Average | 50 | 9-10 | 40 |
| Hard | 75 | 11-12 | 50 |
| Very Hard | 100 | 13-15 | 60 |
If you do not have the minimum required skill points, you will not be allowed to activate the terminal.
At higher skill levels, the numbers of passwords is reduced.
Overview
After passing the skill level check and accessing a terminal, the first screen shown will be your player accessing an encrypted file containing user account names and passwords. This screen can be skipped by clicking on it.
Now the player will see a screen with many of words of the same length, as well as symbols as padding between them. The symbols can be clicked, but will never be the correct password. The player will need to find the correct password before the number of hacking attempts remaining reaches zero. If you run low on attempts but are close to the solution, try the brackets trick below.
After choosing a password, the system will tell you how many out of the number of characters in the word are in the correct position. That is, if a chosen 7 letter word ends in 'ING' and those characters happen to be correct, the system will say "Entry denied. 3/7 correct." You can now justify the second attempt based on the words available and how many of them end in the previously matched 'ING'.
Walkthrough
A Very Easy terminal printed the following set of words.
| Possible Passwords | LOWER | CREED | JAMES | CAGES | CARES | OFFER | CAVES | TIRED |
|---|
Since the majority of the words start with 'CA' the word I chose first was 'CARES'. The terminal confirms that only 1/5 characters are correct, and denies access. Using the process of elimination, only the following two words can now be the correct password. This is because the position of the character is what counts, as opposed to the existence of the character anywhere inside the entry.
| Remaining Words | LOWER | OFFER |
|---|---|---|
| Matched Characters | CARES | CARES |
Only the words LOWER and OFFER share a maximum 1 correct character in the correct position in common with the first attempt CARES, which is the letter E.
The next word I clicked was OFFER. which the terminal confirmed had only 2/5 characters correct. This only leaves the word LOWER to be the solution.
| Password Attempt | Terminal Confirmation | |
|---|---|---|
| Attempt 1 | CARES | 1/5 correct |
| Attempt 2 | OFFER | 2/5 correct |
| Attempt 3 | LOWER | Exact match! Please wait while system is accessed. |
At this point you will be granted access to the terminal and rewarded with the respective amount of experience points.
The Brackets Trick
In between the words are a lot of brackets. There are { [ < and ( brackets and their closing counter part. Now if you hover over a starting bracket and it will highlight a matching closing bracket, you found a loophole (or the bracket trick). Click it like a password and then it does one of two things. It either removes a dud from the passwords or it will give you back all tries. You might see now how handy these can be.
Most of the time there are 3 - 5 of these sprinkled in, but there is no guarantee that you get a trial reset one at all, it's completely random.
That said, I still suggest saving before opening the console and then try it, so you can reload in case it goes horribly wrong.
