Staring at a screen of green gibberish while a Sentry Bot breathes down your neck is the peak Fallout 4 experience. Honestly, the first time you encounter a Master-level terminal, it feels less like a mini-game and more like a high-stakes SAT prep question. You’ve got a wall of characters—parentheses, backslashes, and words like "ROBOTS" or "STAYED"—and only four tries before the system locks you out for a frustrating ten seconds. Most players just click three random words, exit the terminal, and reset. That’s a waste of time.
Fallout 4 computer hacking isn't actually about luck, even though the game kinda makes it feel that way at first. It’s a logic puzzle. It’s a game of Mastermind dressed up in retro-futuristic aesthetic. If you’re just guessing, you’re missing out on the easiest way to bypass half the combat in the game. Whether you're trying to shut down a localized turret network or just want to read some lore-heavy emails from a pre-war office manager, understanding the underlying math makes the wasteland a lot more manageable.
The Logic Behind the Bracket Trick
Most people skip the most important part of hacking: the symbols. You see those strings of characters like < >, [ ], { }, and ( )? Those aren't just filler. In the world of Fallout 4, these are "dud removers."
If you find a pair of matching brackets on the same line—even if there’s other junk between them—highlighting them will do one of two things. It either removes a wrong word from the screen or resets your allowance of guesses. This is massive. You should never, ever use your fourth guess until you have scoured the screen for every single pair of brackets. Sometimes, you can clear out almost every fake password until only the correct one is left standing.
It’s easy to miss. You have to hover your cursor over the opening bracket. If the whole string highlights, you’ve found a "cheat code."
- Look for
(...) - Search for
[...] - Find
{...} - Hunt for
<...>
Don't forget that nested brackets count too. If you see [ @ ! ( ) ], you can actually click the inner ( ) first and then click the outer [ ] for two separate bonuses. It’s a total game-changer for those high-level terminals in the Glowing Sea or inside the Institute where the word list is twenty items long.
Complexity Scales with Your Intelligence Stat
Your character's Intelligence (INT) isn't just for gaining XP faster. It directly affects how many words appear on the hacking screen. If you’re running a "dumb" build with an INT of 1 or 2, the screen is cluttered. It's a mess. If you’ve pushed your INT to 10, the list of potential passwords shrinks significantly, making the logic much easier to parse.
But even with high INT, you need the perks. You can’t even attempt an Advanced terminal without the first rank of the Hacker perk. Expert requires rank two, and Master requires rank three. The fourth rank? It’s basically a luxury. It makes it so you never get locked out of a terminal again. Honestly, though, if you use the bracket trick, you’ll rarely need that fourth rank. Save that perk point for something like Bloody Mess or Gun Nut.
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The Science of "Likeness"
The "Likeness" mechanic is where most players get tripped up. When you click a word like "CAKES" and the game tells you "Likeness=2," it doesn't mean two of those letters are in the right neighborhood. It means two letters are in the exact same position as the correct password.
Let's look at an example.
If the password is POWER and you guess POKER:
The Likeness is 4. (P, O, E, and R are all in the right spots).
If you guess TOWER:
The Likeness is 4. (O, W, E, R are all correct).
If you guess WORDS:
The Likeness is 1. (Only the O is in the second position).
This is where you have to be careful. A Likeness of 0 is actually the most helpful hint you can get. It means you can instantly ignore every single word on the screen that shares a letter in the same position as your failed guess. If "FALLS" has a Likeness of 0, then any word starting with "F" or having "A" in the second slot is dead to you. Move on.
Why Nick Valentine is Your Best Friend
Sometimes, you just don't want to deal with it. I get it. If you’re tired of the mini-game, bring Nick Valentine along. He’s the only companion with a built-in "Hacker" skill that levels up with the player.
You just point at a terminal and tell him to get to work. He’s not perfect, though. He can fail, and if he gets locked out, he’ll usually tell you he "can't get past the encryption." He also doesn't benefit from the bracket tricks you can use, so his success rate is purely based on his internal "luck" stat. But for those of us who would rather be shooting Raiders than playing a 200-year-old word game, Nick is a godsend.
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Essential Hacking Gear and Buffs
You can actually "cheat" the system using gear. Since Intelligence affects the number of words on the screen, popping some Mentats before you click on a terminal makes the puzzle easier.
- Berry Mentats: Adds +5 INT and highlights living targets. The INT boost is huge for hacking.
- Lab Coat: A simple +1 INT boost.
- Pressman's Hat: Another +1 INT.
- Liam's Glasses: If you complete the "Plugging a Leak" quest in the Institute, you get these. They give a massive +2 INT boost.
If you’re really struggling, keep a "Hacking Suit" in your inventory. Just a set of clothes that boosts your Intelligence. It sounds tedious, but for a Master-level terminal that's guarding a cache of Fusion Cores or a Fat Man, it’s worth the thirty seconds it takes to change outfits.
Science Bobbleheads and Magazines
To truly master Fallout 4 computer hacking, you need the permanent buffs. The Science Bobblehead is located inside the Malden Middle School (Vault 75). It gives you an extra guess on every single terminal. This is the difference between a lockout and a win. Instead of four tries, you get five. It sounds small, but that fifth guess is often the one that lets you use a final bracket trick to clear the board.
Then there are the "Total Hack" magazines. These don't change the hacking game itself, but they give you new options once you're inside.
- Wildwood Cemetery: This one lets you hijack turrets.
- Wattz Electronics: This allows you to hack Protectrons.
- The Shamrock Taphouse: This gives you control over spotlights.
Being able to turn a turret against its owners is far more effective than just turning the turret off. It creates a distraction, thins out the enemy ranks, and saves you ammo.
Common Misconceptions About Lockouts
There is a myth that if you get locked out of a terminal, you lose the chance to hack it forever. That’s not true in Fallout 4. In previous games, a lockout was permanent unless you had a specific perk. In 4, it’s just a timer.
Wait ten seconds. The screen will reboot. You can try again.
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The only downside is that the password will reset. The progress you made identifying Likeness is gone. This is why most people exit the terminal on their third guess. If you exit manually before using your last attempt, the lockout timer never triggers. You can just dive right back in immediately. It’s a bit of a "cheese" strategy, but in a survival run where every second counts, it’s a valid tactic.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Session
Instead of dreading the next green screen, try this specific workflow.
First, click the first word that catches your eye. Don't overthink it. Just get a Likeness number. Second, do not click another word. Instead, scan every single line for bracket pairs. Click every single one you find. This will likely remove three or four words and maybe even reset your guesses.
Third, look at your Likeness score from that first word. Compare it to the remaining words. If you had a Likeness of 1, look for words that share exactly one letter in the same position. If you see a word that shares two or three, ignore it—it can't be the right one.
Finally, if you’re down to your last guess and the board is still cluttered, just exit. Don't take the lockout. Resetting the terminal takes two seconds; waiting for a lockout takes ten.
Once you get the hang of it, you'll realize the terminals aren't barriers; they're just another tool in your arsenal. You can open safes, find secret floor safes, and learn the tragic backstories of people who died two centuries ago. It’s one of the best ways to immerse yourself in the world while making the gameplay significantly easier. Go hit up Vault 75, grab that Bobblehead, and stop guessing.
The wasteland is a lot less scary when you control the machines. Log in, find the brackets, and take control of the network. No luck required.