Hacking

The player just successfully identified the password for a Very Hard terminal

 

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

Hacking is a skill in Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4, and can be used to find additional lore and backstory, find alternate resolutions to quests, and even to unlock doors and safes if the Lockpick skill is too low. The player's ability to hack a Terminal is determined by their Science skill in Fallout 3 and New Vegas and the level of their Hacker perk in Fallout 4. Some Terminals cannot be hacked, and will require the player to obtain a password through dialogue or looting. In some cases, even if a Terminal is hackable, the player can still find a password and circumvent the hacking minigame.

Gameplay

Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas

Terminal level	Science skill requirement	Password length	XP reward
Very Easy	0	4-5	20
Easy	25	6-8	30
Average	50	9-10	40
Hard	75	11-12	50
Very Hard	100	13-15	60

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 amount of attempts the player has before being locked out. Strategy-wise, it is best to select one of the possible passwords to see how many letters are correct and then hunt down bracket sets, since the chance of them removing duds is much higher than resetting attempts. A table of Terminal difficulties, their skill requirements, and XP rewards can be seen on the right.

List of hackable terminals (Fallout 3)

For the Data Miner achievement/trophy, you need to find 50 terminals to hack.

Place (or closest map marker)	Location in place	Skill level	Purpose	How Many	Bad Karma?
Alexandria Arms	Second floor	Average	Unlocks door to Storeroom	1	No
Arlington Library	Library lobby	Easy	Information	4	No
Arlington Library	Arlington Library Media Archive middle floor	Average	Turret control	4	No
Arlington Library	Arlington Library Media Archive top floor	Average	Turret control	4	No
Arlington Library	Arlington Library Media Archive top floor	Average	Unlocks safe	4	No
Anacostia Crossing metro station	near Seward Square exit	Average	Protectron	1
Anchorage War Memorial	At the top of the steps leading to the Anchorage Memorial Facility Bay	Average	Unlock Door	1
Bethesda ruins	Bethesda Offices East	Average	Turret control	2
Bethesda Ruins	Bethesda Offices West	Average	Turret control	2
Capital Wasteland	Southeast of the Arlington Library at a Talon Company checkpoint	Average	Turret Control	1
Capital Wasteland	Southeast of flooded metro on a bridge near a raider encampment	Average	Turret Control	1
Citadel	In the Clinic, Ring B	Very Hard	Information	3	Yes
Citadel	Squire Maxon's Room, Ring B	Very Easy	Information	3
Citadel	Elder Lyons room, Ring B	Very Hard	Information	3
Dunwich Building	Forsaken Dunwich Ruins	Easy	Story Infos	1
Dunwich Building	Forsaken Dunwich Ruins, Second Level, Behind Average Locked Door	Easy	Story of a scavenger who holed himself up in the room waiting for a 'Billy'. His corpse and gear can be found at your feet.	1
Dupont Circle station	In the room before the cavern, behind a door	Average	Turret Control	2
Dupont Circle station	South of the Collapsed car tunnel exit.	Very Easy	Protecton Robot control	2
Crater Camp	Just west of Fort Bannister	Average	Information	1
Fairfax ruins	Southeast of, halfway to Andale	Average	Turret control	1
Franklin station	Near the entrance of Franklin Metro Utility	Easy	Unlocks Door	1
Farragut West station	Office near entrance	Very Easy	Protector Robot control	1
Foggy Bottom station	Near the entrance of Dupont Circle	Average	Protectron Robot control	1
Fort Bannister	Fort Bannister Bunker	Easy	Turret Control System	3
Fort Bannister	Commanding Officer's Quarters	Average	Unlocks door	3
Fort Bannister	Commanding Officer's Quarters	Average	Turret Control System	3
Fort Independence	Fort Independence Lower Level	Average	Turret Control System	2
Fort Independence	Fort Independence Lower Level	Hard	Unlocks Door	2
Franklin metro utility	Right after entering	Hard	Unlocks safe	2
Franklin metro utility	Below of first room	Hard	Turret Control	2
Germantown police HQ	Ground Floor	Very Hard	Unlocks jail cell doors	4
Germantown police HQ	Ground Floor	Very Hard	Unlocks contraband closet	4
Germantown police HQ	Top Floor	Very Hard	Information	4
Germantown police HQ	Top Floor	Easy	Unlocks safe	4
Grayditch	Doctor Lesko's Shack	Average	Information related to Those!	2
Grayditch	Brandice's House	Easy	Information	2
Greener Pastures disposal site	Offices	Average	Unlocks safe	1
Jefferson Memorial	Jefferson Museum and Gift Shop	Average	Turret Control System	1
Jefferson Memorial	Jefferson Museum and Gift Shop	Very Easy	Scribe Bigsley's terminal, Only in Broken Steel	1
Jury Street metro station	Jury St. Tunnels	Very Easy	Unlocks safe	1
Little Lamplight	The Great Chamber, northwest corner	Average	Opens Vault 87 Reactor Door (see Joseph)	1
L.O.B. Enterprises	East Wing, northwest corner	Very Hard	Info on unique pistol	1
Lucky's	Inside, on a counter	Hard	Unlocks scavenger's safe	1
Marigold station	Left of behind subway car near flashing light	Easy	Unlocks door	2
Marigold station	Dr. Lesko's Office	Average	Unlocks access door and notes	2
MDPL mass relay station	Inside Power Station	Very Hard	Unlocks safe	1
MDPL-13 power station	Derelict Power Plant, inside upper office	Average	Unlocks safe	3
MDPL-13 power station	Derelict Power Plant, inside lower office	Hard	Turret Control	3
MDPL-13 power station	Inside power substation, on desk	Hard	Unlocks safe	3
MDPL-16 power station	Power Substation	Average	Unlocks safe	1
MDPL-21 power station	Power Substation	Hard	Unlocks safe	1
Megaton	Children of Atom	Very Easy	Information	5	Yes
Megaton	Craterside Supply	Very Easy	Information	5	Yes
Megaton	Megaton armory	Hard	Deactivating Deputy Steel and Weld	5	Yes
Megaton	Moriarty's saloon	Average	Information (Finding out where dad went)	5	Yes
Megaton	The Brass Lantern	Very Easy	Information and unlocks safe	5	Yes
Meresti service tunnel	Meresti Trainyard Station Entry terminal	Very Hard	Information	1
Meresti station	The Family's terminal	Very Hard	Information	3
Meresti station	The Family's terminal #2	Very Hard	Information	3
Meresti station	Vance's terminal	Very Hard	Information and Unlock safe	3
Museum of History	Lower Hall - Top of Staircase on right	Average	Turret Control	2	No
Museum of History	Offices - Go left at the top of the stairs, then go left after the Very Hard door	Average	Turret Control	2	No
Museum of Technology	Atrium, In the Security Station	Average	Turret Control	4
Museum of Technology	West Wing, In the Security Station	Average	Turret Control	4
Museum of Technology	West Wing, In the Security Station	Average	Information	4
Museum of Technology	West Wing, in the Planetarium Control Room	Easy	Unlocks planetarium exit door (if you have less than 50 lockpick and cant unlock it)	4
National Archives	Next to archives sub-basement door	Easy	Unlocks door	1
National Guard depot	Offices Wing, behind a locked door (average) on the other side of the wall (go up the stars and down the other side) there is an unlocked door that goes to the same room.	Average	Disable turrets	4	No
National Guard depot	Training Wing	Average	Disable turrets	4	No
National Guard depot	National Guard depot	Average	Disable turrets (#1)	4	No
National Guard depot	National Guard depot	Average	Disable turrets (#2)	4	No
Northwest Seneca station	Inside Grocer, on counter	Easy	Unlocks safe	1
Nuka-Cola plant	South East of Wasteland	Very Easy	Activating Convoy Belt for Nuka-Cola Quantum's	2
Nuka-Cola plant	Storage and Mixing V.A.T.S.	Very Easy	Activating security protectron	2
Olney Powerworks (Broken Steel Add-on)	Olney Powerworks	Very Hard	Unlocks Door to Tesla Coil	2	No
Olney Powerworks (Broken Steel Add-on)	Olney Powerworks	Hard	Machine Fail safe for Electrical Field around Tesla Coil	2	No
Our Lady of Hope Hospital	First floor	Average	Information (Nurse Station 01)	4
Our Lady of Hope Hospital	First floor, north	Average	Information (Nurse Station 02)	4
Our Lady of Hope Hospital	Inside entrance, near reception	Average	Turret Control System	4
Our Lady of Hope Hospital	Second floor, dead end to the east	Average	Information (Nurse Station 03)	4
Outcast outpost	In Protector McGraw's chamber. (Operation: Anchorage)	Very Easy	Information	1
Paradise Falls	In Eulogy's Pad, on the table with the SpeechBobblehead near the heart bed	Average	Use in quest Rescue from Paradise	1
Queen ant's hatchery	Accessed from Marigold station	Average	Use in quest Those!	1
Raven Rock	Level 1B, Delivery terminal	Average	Unlocks Cage #364	3
Raven Rock	Level 1B	Average	Disables Force Field	3
Raven Rock	Level 2C, same room as Bobblehead - Energy Weapons	Average	Disables Force Field	3
Red Racer factory	CEO Offices	Average	Disable chip broadcast	3
Red Racer factory	CEO Offices	Average	Surgeon's Notes	3
Red Racer factory	CEO Offices	Average	Surgeon's Notes & disable chip broadcast	3
Rivet City	Midship Deck, Abraham Washington's room	Average	Information	8	Yes
Rivet City	Midship Deck, Seagrave Holmes's room	Average	Information	8	No
Rivet City	Tower (2 terminals)	Very Easy	Information	8	No
Rivet City	Upper Deck, Clinic	Average	Information	8	Yes
Rivet City	Upper Deck, Doctor Li's room	Easy	Information	8	Yes
Rivet City	Upper Deck, Bannon's room	Easy	Information	8	Yes
Rivet City	Upper Deck, hotel lobby	Very Easy	Information	8	Yes
RobCo facility	Upper Level - Offices and Cafeteria	Average	Robot control	1
Roosevelt Academy	Ground Floor - Admin Office	Very Easy	Protectron	2
Roosevelt Academy	Ground Floor - Nurse Office	Hard	Open safe	2
SatCom array NN-03d	Tower C	Very Easy	Open Door	1
SatCom array NW-05a	Southeast of Raven Rock	Average	Turret Control	1
Steelyard	In front of a line of 4 protectron's	Hard	4 protectron's	1
Super-Duper Mart	In a storage area the back of the store, next to the protectron.	Very Easy	Protectron	2
Super-Duper Mart	Office at the back of the store.	Easy	Opens door to the storage area to the right of the terminal.	2
Taft tunnel	Before the flood door	Very hard	?	1
Tenpenny Tower	In Boutique Le Chic, 1st Floor	Average	Unlocks safe	4	Yes
Tenpenny Tower	In New Urban Apparel, 1st Floor	Average	Unlocks safe	4	Yes
Tenpenny Tower	In the Federalist Lounge, 1st Floor	Easy	Store Discount	4
Tenpenny Tower	Metro Access & Generator around back of the tower	Easy	Unlock containment door for Tenpenny Tower	4
Tepid sewer	To the left of the entrance	Average	Control automated turrets	2
Tepid sewer	Outside Rocksalt's storage room	Easy	Unlocks Rocksalt's storage room	2
Underworld	Winthrop's Room	Average	Information/Unlocks safe	4	Yes
Underworld	The Chop Shop	Very Easy	Information	4	Yes
Underworld	The Ninth Circle	Very Easy	Information/Unlocks safe	4	Yes
Underworld	Underworld Outfitters	Very Easy	Information	4	Yes
VAPL-58 power station	Inside building	Very Hard	Unlocks safe	1
Vault 87	Living Quarters	Average	Information/Unlocks safe	8
Vault 87	Test Labs, Isolation Room 01	Hard	Unlocks Door	8
Vault 87	Test Labs, Isolation Room 02	Hard	Unlocks Door	8
Vault 87	Test Labs, Isolation Room 03	Hard	Unlocks Door	8
Vault 87	Test Labs, Isolation Room 04	Hard	Unlocks Door	8
Vault 87	Test Labs, Isolation Room 05	Hard	Unlocks Door	8
Vault 87	Test Labs, Lab Tehnician	Average	Unlocks Door	8
Vault 87	Test Labs, Medical Wing Maintenance	Average	Unlocks Door(s)	8
Vault 92	Living Quarters	Average	Women's Dorm Security terminal	5
Vault 92	Living Quarters	Average	Men's Dorm Security terminal	5
Vault 92	Living Quarters	Hard	Data Storage Entry	5
Vault 92	Living Quarters	Average	Security terminal	5
Vault 92	Atrium	Average	Supply Shop	5
Vault 101	Interrogation room during Trouble on the Homefront	Average	Opens cell, Information (this terminal is unlocked during Escape!)	3
Vault 101	Overseer's office	Very Easy	Opens tunnel, Information	3	No
Vault 101	Sub-Level	Hard	Information	3
Vault 106	Entrance, security room	Very Easy	Information	2
Vault 106	Living Quarters, Overseers office	Very Hard	Information	2
Vault 112	Tranquility Pod Floor	Hard	Unlocks door to Supply Room	1
Vault-Tec headquarters	Vault-Tec Administration, Lower Floor, northeast corner	Average	Disable turrets	2
Vault-Tec headquarters	Vault-Tec Administration, Upper Floor	Average	Disable turrets	2
Wheaton armory	Bottom of missile silo	Average	Turret control	2
Wheaton armory	Bottom of missile silo	Very Hard	Unlocks Door	2
Greener Pastures disposal site	In the offices of the disposal site on a table when you walk in to the offices	Average	Unlocks safe	2

List of hackable terminals (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?
Black Mountain	Prison building	Very Hard	Password/disengage lock	1	No
Black Mountain	Broadcast building 1st floor	Easy	Background info	2	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	2	No
Camp McCarran	Camp McCarran supply shack	Average	Download Weapons Manifest used in Dealing with Contreras Quest	2	Yes
Camp Searchlight	Around the turrets	Very Easy-Very Hard	Turret control	5	No
Forbidden Zone Old World Blues	X-42 Robo-Warfare Facility	Very Hard	Emergency Shutdown of the X-42 giant robo-scorpion	1	No
Gomorrah	Big Sal's Office	Average	Disengage lock	1	No
Goodsprings	Goodsprings schoolhouse	Easy	Disengage safe lock	2	No
Goodsprings	Prospector Saloon	Easy	Disengage safe lock	2	Yes
H&H Tools factory	2nd floor	Average	Background info	1	No
Helios One	Surrounded by a fence north-east of the entrance to the Solar Collection Tower.	Hard	Quest related	1	No
Hidden Valley bunker	L1	Very Easy-Hard	Journal entry's/turret access	4	Yes
Hidden Valley bunker	L2	Very hard	Self destruction	1	Yes
Lucky 38	casino	Hard	Quest related	1	No
Lucky 38	Penthouse	Hard		1	No
Police station Dead Money	In the same room as Dog/God	Hard	Disengage Door lock	1	No
Primm	Bison Steve Hotel	Easy	Disengage Door lock	1	No
REPCONN headquarters	3 FL1, 2 FL2, 2 FL3	Very Easy-Very Hard	Disengage lock/Background info/Bypass security	7	No
Sunset Sarsaparilla headquarters	Factory Floor	Very Easy-Average	Background info	3	No
Two Skies cave Honest Hearts	In front of the Electric Door	Average	Disengage Electric Door 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's room	Easy	Sarah Weintraub´s Mail	1	Yes
Vault 11		Hard	Disengage lock	1	No
Villa clinicDead Money	2nd Floor inside a locked office	Easy	Journal entry's	1	No
X-8 research center Old World Blues	X-8 Institutional Test Facility 1st Floor	Average	Turret Control	2	No
X-8 research center Old World Blues	X-8 Institutional Test Facility 2nd Floor	Easy	Turret Control	2	No
X-13 research facility Old World Blues	X-13 Stealth Testing Lab directly across the elevator	Hard	No Function	1	No

Fallout 4

Terminal level	Hacker perk requirement	Password length	XP reward
Novice	0	4-5
Advanced	1	6-8
Expert	2	9-10
Master	3	11-12

Fallout 4's Terminals act the same way as Fallout 3 and New Vegas' Terminals, however their uses are expanded to disabling turrets, alarm systems, and various other defenses in raider camps. A table of Terminal difficulties and perk requirements can be seen on the right.

List of hackable terminals (Fallout 4)

For the RobCo's Worst Nightmare achievement/trophy, the Sole Survivor must hack 50 terminals.

Place (or closest map marker)	Location in place	Perk level	Purpose	How Many	Bad Karma?

Behind the scenes

• It is possible to permanently alter the required level of the Science skill for certain difficulties by adding a section to the game's configuration file. Currently this is only known for Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. See the [Hacking] section, especially the fHackingMinSkillAverage setting for the Fallout.ini file.

Notes

• Passwords are chosen at random from a sizeable list of words. This can cause post-War words (such as Nightkin or Deathclaw) to appear in the minigame on terminals that haven't been disturbed since before the war. The list for Average difficulty minigames also contains one of the few misspellings (if Fallout: New Vegas is being played): "LEUTENANT", instead of "Lieutenant."
• When selecting a bracketed text string when there is only one selectable word left it will have no effect and simply say, "Entry Denied."