10 Incredibly Useful Mechanics Video Games Never Bothered To Explain
9. Hacking Symbols Can Restore Your Lives - Fallout 4
A big part of how much loot you can find in Fallout 4 is dependent on how good you are at hacking and lockpicking.
The hacking mini-game is definitely the more annoying of the two, as you have to pick the correct phrase out of dozens of potential options, and you only get four attempts to guess.
Or so the game wants you to believe.
None of the prompts or tutorials bother to explain this, but the various symbols scattered on the hacking screen alongside the code phrases aren't there just to make the window appear like a confusing waterfall of code in a cheesy hacker movie. Some of them also provide you with extra lives and the ability to remove fake phrases!
To get the hidden benefits, you have to find brackets that enclose bits of the code. Clicking the brackets will activate their corresponding ability and make hacking a lot faster and easier.
Say goodbye to having to waste a minute because you accidentally spent all your attempts looking for the right phrase, and now you're locked out of using the computer!