[KC_Lion]

My Fellow FReepers.

I will tell you a secert.

I played my First Fallout game in the Summer of 2012. Which was Fallout New Vegas.

Since then I have played Fallouts 3 and 4 in their entirety.

And I have NEVER figured out what the hell I am suppose to do in the hacking mini-game.

I just give it Three Tries, exit out before the fourth and final one and try again.

Yes it resets the scramble, but I get in often sooner rather than later.

So there we have it. Nearly Five Years of Fallout and I still don't know the proper way to play the hacking mini game. lol

[Lazamataz]

You look for letter matches. The most valuable letter match is ZERO, because you can eliminate those letters from those positions. Also look for [], {}, and (), which remove duds if you click on them. But exiting on try three is common, even among the pro Fallout players.

An interesting sidenote: I've been playing Survival mode (successfully to level 11 so far) and I gotta tell ya:

1. You find a LOT more things RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR MAIN AREAS (Red Rocket and Sanctuary) because without fast travel, you notice more. I shake my head and laugh every time I find a whole new deal right up next to my spot.
2. Hunger/Sleep/Thirst adds greatly to the game for me. I could do without Fatigue, Insomnia, Infection, Lethargy, and the like, though. Those seem to be random Eff You's from the game.
3. You have to use EVERY bit of junk you find. No more spamming stimpaks. You use them. Every last one.
4. It's a lot more realistic. Three hits from a feral and you are dead, even at level 10. Makes you think, plan more. Makes it a lot more suspenseful.
5. Because you cannot fast travel, Power Suits are MUCH less valueable. To get anywhere, you gotta sprint then normal-run, sprint then normal-run, sprint then normal-run... waiting until your action points restore. Sprinting in a Power Suit KILLS your fusion core. So you treasure your power suit more.... like you would in real life.

[sparklite2]

Once I realized the computer told me what letters I got correct and where they occurred in the password, comparing the correct letters and position from word to word made the process not only easy, but fun, if you like word puzzles.

[RC one]

Each wrong answer reveals a number of letters that are in the right word. You have to guess what the right word is based on the those letters so if you guess “building” and get 5 correct letters and the other words are “holding”, “ransom”, and “feeling”- “holding” would be the answer. It’s a process of elimination.

[daltec]

Thanks for sharing your secret, KC_Lion! I find hacking to be easy (but tedious) -- here's how I understand it:

1. Take a look at the screenshot in Laz's comment. The word MARKS was selected for the first attempt. MARKS was incorrect. However, MARKS has a "likeness" of "2" -- this means that the correct password shares two letters with MARKS (and only two), and in the same position. That is, if the correct password contains an A and an R, they would need to be the second and third letters of the correct password.

2. In Laz's screenshot, the next attempt selected STARK for some reason. While it may appear that STARK is close to MARKS, it actually isn't. Note how none of the letters in MARKS is in the same position as STARK (i.e. they don't line up). The A in MARKS is the second letter (position 2) while in STARK it is the third letter. And so on. As a result, STARK is given a likeness of 0.

MARKS

STARK

Note how nothing lines up. A much better choice would have been LARGE. It shares two letters -- A and R -- with MARKS, both are in the same position, and no other letters are shared:

MARKS

LARGE

Since MARKS has a likeness of 2, we are looking for two letters (and only two) that line up. The A and the R line up, and no other letters do.

3. The third attempt selected STAKE, which has a likeness of 1. This means that the correct password, whatever it may be, shares one letter in the same position with STAKE, and two with MARKS.

4. According to the screenshot, the next attempt is going to use NAMES, which will fail and lock them out, because it's wrong. While NAMES does share two letters in the correct position with MARKS (the original attempt), it shares none at all with STAKE. We know that STAKE has a likeness of one, so NAMES can't possibly be the correct password.

MARKS

NAMES

We are looking for two letters that line up. The A and the S line up. But...

STAKE

NAMES

No letters line up, and we know that STAKE has one correct letter. So the password cannot be NAMES.

5. Using process of elimination, we see that there is only one possiblity for the correct password: LARGE. How do we know?

MARKS has two letters in the same position as the correct password, and STAKE has one.

MARKS

LARGE

The A and the R line up.

STAKE

LARGE

The E lines up.

None of the other possibilities match those criteria. I hope this helps explain things! Like I said, I find hacking terminals to be tedious, but it's very useful (and sometimes almost required), plus you get a decent XP bump. Sometimes in fact, I will pick the lock and hack the terminal too, just to get a few extra easy XPs.

[Personal Responsibility]

“So there we have it. Nearly Five Years of Fallout and I still don’t know the proper way to play the hacking mini game. lol”

It’s basically a word game version of Mastermind. You guess a word, the computer tells you how many characters in the right place you got. Using that response you look for words in the screen that have letters in the similar spot until you get it right.

For example, let’s say the only three words t choose from were NAME, NAIL and LIME

If you guess the word NAME and get the response Likenesses: 2 then the words NAIL (NA similar) or LIME (ME similar) or could be correct.

You guess NAIL and the response Likenesses: 0 then you know LIME was correct.

[AFreeBird]

WTH is Fallout? Aside from the radioactive kind.

[Ueriah]

I do it the same way. Guilty as charged.

[lowbridge]

Have you tried:

UP UP DOWN DOWN BA START?