How to Hack Terminals in Fallout 3

Hacking is a crucial skill in the Capitol Wasteland of the video game Fallout 3. Successfully hacking terminals allows you to gain access to a wide range of things, from minor story details to unique items. Terminals can also control turrets and are essential for certain missions. While some terminals are already unlocked and accessible to anyone, many remain locked and require hacking. If your Science skill meets the requirements, you can attempt to unlock these secrets.

Increase your Science level. Your Science level determines which terminals you can attempt to hack. Each time you level up, you can allocate points to Science and use Mentats to temporarily boost it. Wearing the lab coat obtained from the "Those!" quest grants a +10 Science bonus. You can max out Science at 100 points, with five difficulty levels for hacking. You cannot attempt to hack a terminal if you don’t meet the following point requirements:

• Very Easy - 0
• Easy - 25
• Average - 50
• Hard - 75
• Very Hard - 100

Familiarize yourself with the hacking interface. When interacting with a hackable terminal, the hacking screen will appear. The number at the top indicates your remaining attempts. The lower part of the screen appears chaotic, with English words hidden among random characters. These words could be passwords, and you must guess the correct one before running out of attempts. Words may span multiple lines, and all words are of the same length.

Choose a word to guess first. Try to pick a word with many unique letters, as it will make it easier to narrow down your options. If you’re lucky and guess the correct word, you might even hack the computer immediately. If the word isn’t the password, you’ll see a number.

• Higher Science skill reduces the number of words you need to choose from.

Determine how many characters are correct. When you guess incorrectly, you’ll see a message indicating how many characters are correct and in the right position. For example: 4/9 means four letters in your chosen word are correct and in the right place. There may be more correct letters, but they won’t count if they’re not in the correct position.

Choose the next word. Compare your chosen word with the remaining options and try to narrow down the possibilities. For example, if you see 3/12 and your chosen word is CONSTRUCTION, other words must have three letters in the exact same positions. It’s possible that another word ends with ION, as this is a common suffix in English. Select the next word you think fits and see the result.

Use the bracket trick before your third guess. One of the most successful hacking tricks is the "bracket trick." If the terminal contains a pair of brackets, removing them can reduce incorrect choices or reset the attempt counter. This is why you should save brackets until after a few guesses to avoid wasting attempts. Brackets appear randomly, and more brackets appear as your Science skill increases.

• Bracket types include {}, [], <>, and (). The brackets may contain multiple characters inside.
• The easiest way to find a bracket pair is to slowly move the cursor over each character on the terminal screen. The bracket pair and all characters inside will automatically be highlighted.
• You may want to keep one or two bracket pairs in reserve in case you need them before your final attempt.

Choose the third word. If the brackets don’t help and you haven’t guessed the correct word in the first two attempts, at least think carefully about which letters are in the correct positions. Then compare the results with your two chosen words to see if you can deduce the correct letters. Use this comparison to select your next word.

Don’t attempt the fourth guess immediately. If you fail four times, you’ll be completely locked out of the terminal. Once locked, the only way to unlock it is to find a password item in the game world, which isn’t always guaranteed. Here are a few strategies to consider before your fourth hack attempt:

• Use any remaining brackets. If you’ve saved brackets earlier, now is the time to use them to reset your attempt counter or eliminate enough incorrect options to identify the correct word.
• Exit the terminal and start over. By pressing the power button to exit the terminal, you can restart the guessing process. The words will reshuffle, and you’ll have to start from scratch, but you’ll regain all your attempts and avoid being locked out.
• Take a wild guess on the fourth attempt. Few dare to risk this, as it can easily lead to being locked out. Consider exiting and trying again instead.

• Save your game before attempting to hack to avoid being locked out.
• When guessing the password, pay attention to words on the screen related to hacking, such as "breaching," "entering," or "clearing." Typically, you should avoid unrelated words like "history" or "mountains."
• If you fail three times, exit and re-enter the terminal to start over.

• You’ll lose Karma points if you hack into another terminal with red text.