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Fallout: New Vegas Hints
Hacking Tips
1 of 11: If you have a high enough Science skill, you can attempt to hack a locked computer terminal rather than looking or asking around for a password (which you usually can't get).
2 of 11: If you're wanting to hack a terminal that's too tough for you, look through your inventory for any apparel and aid items that will boost your Intelligence attribute and/or your Science skill. You should save up such items whenever you find them so you can use them to help with tough hacks. (Note that Science-boosting magazines are the best items for this.)
3 of 11: When hacking a terminal, the first thing to do is patiently scan the list of computer gobbledy-gook for lines that have a left bracket followed by any number of characters (maybe none) and then a matching right bracket. By brackets, I mean square brackets [], angle brackets <>, curly braces {}, and parenthesis (). Look for pairs of all four types.
4 of 11: Pointing at the left bracket should highlight the entire character string, and clicking there will usually remove one of the incorrect passwords. (Occasionally, it'll replenish your number of guesses instead. Due to this, you may want to wait until you only have one attempt left before using bracket items.)
5 of 11: After you're done with that, pick a word at random and click on it.
6 of 11: You could just choose words at random until you either get the right one or only have one attempt left. If you end up with one attempt left, exit the hack and start over -- maybe you'll get lucky next time. (Or quicksave before hacking a terminal, use up all of your guesses, then quickrestore and try again if you get locked out.)
7 of 11: TIP: On the PC, you can often left-click whenever a screen starts displaying on a terminal to get it to hurry up and finish so you don't have to sit and wait through its "I'm so slow and primitive" display routine. This can help speed things up when you first access a terminal to start a hack.
8 of 11: Another way is to pay attention to how many letters you're told are correct in the word you clicked on. That can be used as a clue to help eliminate possibilities.
9 of 11: For instance, if you click on SCRAP and it tells you "2/5 correct," that means two letters in SCRAP (you can't tell which two) are the right letters in the right position for the correct password.
10 of 11: Let's say that some of the other words are HINTS, GAUNT, SOUTH, STONE, and SWORD. You can eliminate HINTS because it doesn't have any of the same letters in the same position as SCRAP. The same goes for GAUNT. SOUTH has one match (the starting S), but that's not enough. Ditto with STONE and SWORD. So all of those words can be eliminated without clicking on them in the game and wasting guesses.
11 of 11: In this example, the correct password was SCARF. Notice that both SCARF and SCRAP start with SC, and no other letters match up.
