Fallout 3 hacking... wtf

[acheron]

Originally posted by: Maximilian
The process of elimination is time consuming and boring.... My solution was to guess 3 times (not 4 or you lock out the terminal) then if none were correct cancel and try another 3, rinse and repeat. You will crack it pretty quickly, 7 tries max usually.

That sounds like it would take longer than just figuring it out. Usually I never had to exit out and try again; if I did it was only once.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: acheron

Originally posted by: Maximilian
The process of elimination is time consuming and boring.... My solution was to guess 3 times (not 4 or you lock out the terminal) then if none were correct cancel and try another 3, rinse and repeat. You will crack it pretty quickly, 7 tries max usually.

That sounds like it would take longer than just figuring it out. Usually I never had to exit out and try again; if I did it was only once.

You would be surprised. All you need is some quick trigger fingers. It's usually not that much faster, but it often is faster. I normally don't do that though because I get some satisfaction from figuring it out through logical deduction.

 

[DefRef]

I didn't know you could back off after three misses. Good to know.

I was in the Arlington Library last night and had three terminals to hack and got them all on the 2nd guess. Thing is that to even get a crack at hacking, I have to change clothes to a Vaul uniform and pop Mentats to buff myself up. (Science is at 40 IIRC. Yeah, lame.)

I can't really explain how I grok them, but one thing I do is quickly skim the list of passwords looking for common suffixes that could cause trial and error time-wasting, like THINKING and DRINKING and STINKING; any one of those is going to give you a 6-of-8 right result. Better to try...oh, wait...here's a good page of tips - why hurt myself trying to come up with examples?

These word choices can sometimes help you with the hacking minigame. For example, selecting a word that ends in -ing or -ned is usually a good choice. If the result is 3/N, then you probably have to choose another word that ends in -ing.

Imagine it like this: You select the word HACKING. This is not the correct password, but the result was 3/7. You then select another word that ends in -ing, such as MELTING. Note that the first 4 characters do not match, but the remaining three do. Typically, only a few words will contain the same ending letters.

One last tip: Look at the word. If you select HACKING, and the system says 4/7, the next logical choice would be HELPING or HURTING, or something of that nature. Since they list the words used in a handy column, simply match up the letters to see which ones are contained IN THE SAME SPACE. That is what the X/Y result is trying to tell you.

Wrong answers can be more helpful than partially correct answers. If you select HACKING and get 0/7 correct you can rule out any word with any of those characters. For this reason make sure your first few guesses don't have any duplicate letters in the word.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Also, in case you don't already know, quit out of the hack and try again after 3 attempts. The terminal locks permanently after 4 wrong guesses, but resets with a new word if you quit and try again.

Quicksave, use the 4 guesses, reload if necessary.

 

[NGC_604]

Originally posted by: gorcorps

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: RedRooster
Frick, had I known that sooner I wouldn't have half a dozen computers locked out all over the place. Other than security bots for that building, there's never anything important in them anyways, is there? Not like a wall safe or something.

An example of a useful one is the computer in the vault that contains the Strativarius violen. It is nice because it will kill all of the mirelurks for you.

Wow, where's that at? And how high is the security on it? Those mirelurcks are a pain with their tiny weak spot in the middle of their face. At least they are right now (lvl7).

An easy way to kill them is to dart gun them, then crouch down and wait till they get right in front of you and use the shotgun in their face. If you dart gun them, then they can't lunge at you anymore.