One of the most iconic minigames in Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic series is Hacking, which is prominent in Fallout 4, and without explanation, it can be hard to grasp. With so many letters and symbols, people can short-circuit faster than the terminals they are trying to hack. Furthermore, the game only gives a brief explanation via a tutorial screen, which isn’t too helpful. But if you want to have Fallout 4‘s hacking system explained to you, we have every tip to break into these nuclear-powered computers in no time.
Fallout 4’s Hacking System Explained
Fallout 4‘s hacking is available to any player as soon as they fire up the game. However, not all might be tech-savvy to break into terminals. Yet, once you do, you’ll be bombarded with many symbols that may not make sense at the time. Here, we’ll show you what each one means and how to hack even the tightest computer in the Commonwealth.
Accessing a Terminal
You can start the mini-game by approaching a computer and pressing A on your controller or E on your keyboard. Remember, you can only access novice terminals at first and take a crack at more difficult ones once you improve your Hacker perk. But once you’re inside the terminal, the real game begins.
Word’s Likeness
Fallout 4’s hacking system tasks players with finding the right word on the list, as you can see in the above image. The important thing here is the Likeness part, which appears at the bottom right corner when you select one word. This section will show you how close you are to finding the word. But remember the following: Likeness refers to a letter in one specific position in one word. For example, in this terminal, the correct word was RUINS. Since I picked SOUND, it showed a Likeness of one, meaning the N was in the right spot.
In the above example, you can see I now picked OPENS, and it showed a Likeness of 2, meaning the N and S are in the right spot, so I should look for words ending with NS. Thankfully, the only word with that is RUINS, so that’s one hacked terminal.
Making Hacking Easier
One way to make your hacking career in the Commonwealth much easier is by removing duds. Duds are usually symbols that start and end with a bracket. Any type of bracket. These duds can do two things: remove one wrong word from the terminal or reset your tries. If you’re stuck with only two attempts left, try removing duds to make the process easier. Usually, if you find a small dud, it won’t do anything. But if you find a dud matching the number of letters certain words have, it’ll remove a wrong word.
Overall, the hacking mini-game in Fallout 4 is fun once it’s been properly explained to players. While you can shoot your way through most locations and find passwords or keycards to bypass terminals, I recommend giving this mini-game a shot. It can save you a lot of bullets and time if you dedicate yourself to learning the ins and outs of breaking into someone else’s private computer in the Commonwealth.
