Fallout players everywhere have been horrified to learn they've been making hacking much harder than it ever needed to be. And they've been doing so for years.
The Fallout franchise is enjoying a well-deserved bit of time in the sun right now. Fallout 76 is better than it's ever been, Fallout 4 has had a massive new update, and Amazon's Fallout series was the catalyst behind it all.
With so many people picking up a Fallout game for the first time, a lot of new discoveries have been made. And I have to say I, for one, was genuinely shook to realise this little hacking secret.
For those that aren't too familiar with the Fallout games, it's possible to hack certain terminals to gain access to private documents, disable defences, or open doors and safes.
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Hacking in Fallout involves a small logic game that... is not for everyone. Essentially you have four guesses to crack the password, and you can work out how close to the password you were after every guess by working out which letters and their specific placement are consistent across each guess.
For example, an attempt at hacking in Fallout might go: Dead (1/4) - Dune (3/4) - Dude (success).
If you make four guesses and don't succeed, the terminal locks. In some Fallout games this means you're permanently locked out unless you manage to find a password written down somewhere, while in Fallout 4 you can just wait a while and try again.
But in all Fallout games, there's an easier way. As pointed out by Jamie Moran on Twitter, not only can you remove "dud" words, you can also reset your attempts if you close the terminal after your third guess.
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Okay, so I guess some people knew this, but judging by the replies on Twitter, a lot of us did not.
Fallout, you son of a bitch.