Hacking

	For hacking in Fallout 76, see Lock (Fallout 76).

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, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.

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.

Place (or closest map marker)	Location in place	Skill level	Purpose	How Many	Bad Karma?
Ashton silo control station	L1	Average/Hard	Disengage lock	2	No
Black Mountain	Prison building	Very Hard	Password Disengage Lock	1	No
Black Mountain	Broadcast building 1st floor	Easy	Background info	2	No
Boulder City	Train station	Average	Disengage lock	1	No
Camp Golf	House Resort	Easy-Hard	Ranger info	2	Easy-No Hard-Yes
Camp McCarran	Inside a tent in front of Camp McCarran terminal building entrance	Very Easy	NCR Ranger mail	1	No
Camp McCarran	Camp McCarran supply shack	Average	Download weapons manifest used in Dealing with Contreras quest	1	Yes
Camp Searchlight	Around the turrets	Very Easy-Very Hard	Turret control	5	No
Camp Searchlight	NCR storage area (inside derelict church)	Average	Access safe Inventory	1	No
Forbidden Zone	X-42 Robo-Warfare Facility	Very Hard	Emergency shutdown of the X-42 giant robo-scorpion	1	No
The Fort	Weather monitoring station	Average-Hard	Quest-related	2	No
Gomorrah	Big Sal's office	Average	Disengage lock	1	No
Goodsprings	Goodsprings schoolhouse	Easy	Disengage lock	1	No
Goodsprings	Prospector Saloon	Easy	Disengage lock	1	Yes
H&H Tools factory	2nd floor	Average	Background info	1	No
Hidden Valley bunker	L1	Very Easy-Hard	Journal entries Turret access	4	Yes
HELIOS One	Mirror yard terminals	Hard	Reset mainframe connections	2	No
HELIOS One	Solar collection tower	Easy	Turret control	1	No
Hidden Valley bunker	L2	Very Hard	Self-destruction	1	Yes
Hopeville silo bunker entrance	L1, L2, and L3	Easy-Hard	Disengage lock Disable security	3	No
Lucky 38	Casino	Hard	Quest-related	1	No
Lucky 38	Penthouse	Hard		1	No
NCR Embassy		Easy-Average	Information	2	Yes
Primm	Bison Steve Hotel	Easy	Disengage lock	1	No
Puesta del Sol switching station		Very Easy-Hard	Turn off radio Turret control	3	No
REPCONN headquarters	3 FL1, 3 FL2, 2 FL3	Very Easy-Very Hard	Disengage lock Background info Bypass security	8	No
Salida del Sol	On a desk in the south	Average	Turn speakers off	1	No
Sierra Madre Casino & Resort	Executive suites	Easy-Normal	Turn speakers off Download Recipe: Super-Heated Knife! Unlock security closet	2	No
Sunset Sarsaparilla headquarters	Factory floor	Very Easy-Average	Background info Activate Mr. Janitor	3	No
Third Street Municipal Building	Outside the entrance on a desk	Easy	Background info	1	No
Two Skies cave	In front of the electric door	Average	Disengage lock	1	No
Ulysses' Temple	Maintenance and storage	Hard	Disengage lock	1	No
Vault 3	Maintenance wing	Average	Disengage lock	2	No
Vault 3	Living quarters	Average-Hard	Disengage lock	3	No
Vault 3	Left of vault entrance	Very Easy	Close access panel	1	No
Vault 21	Gift shop	Very Hard	Background info	1	Yes
Vault 21	Sarah Weintraub's room	Easy	Sarah Weintraub's mail	1	Yes
Vault 11		Hard	Disengage lock	1	No
Villa clinic	2nd floor	Easy	Background info	1	No
Villa police station	On a desk next to the front entrance	Hard	Disengage lock	1	No
X-8 research center	X-8 institutional test facility, 1st floor	Average	Turret control	2	No
X-8 research center	X-8 institutional test facility, 2nd floor	Easy	Turret control	2	No
X-13 research facility	X-13 stealth testing lab, directly across the elevator	Hard	No function	1	No

Fallout 4[]

Hacking in Fallout 4 works largely the same as in previous installments. Terminal hacking ability is determined by the Hacker perk, with terminal locks being of the Novice, Advanced, Expert, or Master tiers. Successfully hacking a terminal may allow one to: access information, disable or enable turrets or spotlights, alarm systems, and various other defenses or traps, open locked doors or safes. Several words and symbols are displayed on the locked terminal, with word length dependent on the terminal's tier. Finding complete bracket sets (e.g. "<...>", "[...]") on one row will (at random) either remove incorrect words or reset the number of tries. 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.

The fourth-level rank of the Hacker 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.

Fallout 76[]

Notes[]

• When selecting a bracketed text string when there is only one selectable word left it will have no effect and simply say, "Entry Denied."
• Unlike in Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas, clicking a dud character (such as an unmatched bracket) in Fallout 4 doesn't remove a chance from your allowance.

Behind the scenes[]

While most words presented in a hacking screen are dictionary words, there are some exceptions.

• The word 'GURPS' may appear in Fallout 4 hacking screens. This is a reference to the initial working title of Fallout 1, which was Fallout: A GURPS Post Nuclear Adventure, using rules from the GURPS paper and pencil roleplaying system.