Locks are found throughout the wasteland on doors, safes and boxes. In Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, the player can use their Lockpick skill to pick a lock using bobby pins. Some can also be unlocked with keys.
Lock difficulties
| Difficulty | Required Lockpick | XP reward |
|---|---|---|
| Very Easy | 0 | 20 |
| Easy | 25 | 30 |
| Average | 50 | 40 |
| Hard | 75 | 50 |
| Very Hard | 100 | 60 |
Locks come in 5 difficulties: very easy, easy, average, hard and very hard. Which locks you can pick depends on your Lockpick skill (see table to the right). Difficulty and your Lockpick skill also determine the probability of success for an attempt to force a lock open (see force lock below).
Experience points
Depending on its difficulty, successfully opening a lock grants an amount of XP. Without any XP reward-increasing perks, each level rewards the player with the XP shown in the table above.
Picking a lock
- In order to pick a lock you must have a Lockpick skill high enough for the difficulty of the lock, and you must possess one or more bobby pins. Bobby pins are weightless items, often found in first aid kits and locked containers.
- Picking a lock on a door or container takes the form of a mini game:
- Insert a bobby pin and a screwdriver (a free, weightless item which does not appear in your inventory) into the keyhole of the lock.
- Rotate the pin to trip the tumblers in the lock, and the screwdriver to turn the lock in place of a key.
- Move the bobby pin and screwdriver one at a time. The aim is to position the pin correctly and then turn the lock fully.
- If the screwdriver is moved while the bobby pin is in the wrong position the pin may snap, requiring you to try again with a new one.
- The difficulty level of the lock determines how accurately the bobby pin must be placed. A very easy lock can often be opened simply by turning the screwdriver, without moving the bobby pin at all. In a very hard lock, the bobby pin must be placed more precisely.
- Wrongly placed bobby pins generally break on the third attempt to turn the screwdriver (more if used carefully). To avoid breakage of a weakened pin, simply exit the lockpick screen and try again. This will reset your pins to full strength.
Strategy for PC
- The bobby pin is moved with the mouse, in a semi-circle around the top of the lock. The screwdriver is moved by tapping the "A", "W", "D" or "S" keys.
- Move the bobby pin to a random starting position.
- Gently tap the screwdriver key and release it. If the pin wiggles as the lock turns, it is in the wrong position and should be moved.
- Press the screwdriver key again to move the lock. The distance it turns each time will allow you to gauge the correct position for the bobby pin. The screwdriver will move more quickly as you near the correct position.
- Continue to carefully move both screwdriver and bobby pin until the lock moves fully and opens.
Strategy for console versions
- The position of the bobby pin is controlled with one analog stick, and the screwdriver with the other.
- The controller will vibrate with the wiggling of the bobby pin, and vibrate strongly as it starts to break.
- Move the bobby pin to a random starting position.
- Gently move the screwdriver stick and release it. If the pin wiggles as the lock turns, it is in the wrong position and should be moved.
- Move the screwdriver stick again to turn the lock. The distance it turns each time will allow you to gauge the correct position for the bobby pin.
- Continue to carefully move both screwdriver and bobby pin until the lock moves fully and opens.
Lockpicking in Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Picking locks in older Fallouts is simpler than in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas; instead of a mini-game, a lockpick skill roll will take place every time you use the skill on a door or a container. A successful roll will open the lock, a failure will not. A critical failure will break the lock, rendering it unalivable until the next day.
The lockpick skill can be used on unlocked doors and containers as well, and locking them will give the same amount of experience as unlocking a locked one (25 XP). Note that one door or container can give experience only once via lockpicking.
Force lock
It is also possible to skip the mini game by attempting to force a lock open. The probability of success for this action depends on your Lockpick skill and the difficulty of the lock. The only combination which has a 100% success rate is a very easy lock with a Lockpick skill of 90-100; every other combination will have a smaller percentage.
If you fail at forcing the lock open it will break, and no other attempt at opening it can be made unless you have the Infiltrator perk (which grants a second attempt) or the appropriate key.
List of locks (Fallout 3)
| Closest map marker | Directions | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Chryslus Building | Lower offices, first door on the left in the hallway. | Very Hard |
| Citadel | B-Ring: Elder Lyons' safe in the far back of his room, near his bed. | Very Hard |
| Citadel | Citadel Lab: The Armory is located in an extra room on the bottom level with a locked cell door. | Very Hard |
| Corvega Factory | South of it, a footlocker in a flipped over truck trailer. | Very Hard |
| Dukov's Place | South of it, in a small enclosed raider camp. ammo box behind a counter. | Very Hard |
| Falls Church | The southernmost of the Office buildings with a bunch of super mutants has a 100 skill door inside. | Very Hard |
| Fort Bannister | In a bunker to the right just as you enter the front entrance. | Very Hard |
| Fort Constantine | Bomb Storage, and several doors within. | Very Hard |
| Grayditch | Dumpster, behind the diner. | Very Hard |
| L.O.B. Enterprises | Safe in the CEO office. | Very Hard |
| Mama Dolce's | Food Distribution: 2 doors on an isolated catwalk with blank walls behind them. | Very Hard |
| MDPL Mass Relay Station | Safe inside. | Very Hard |
| Megaton | Mister Burke's house | Very Hard |
| Megaton | Craterside Supply | Very Hard |
| Megaton | Desk in Water processing plant; see Leo's Drug Habit | Very Hard |
| Megaton | Megaton armory | Very Hard |
| Minefield | Small model house inside the Gibson House (the key to this model house can be found inside the Capitol Post building in L'Enfant Plaza on the body of Gibson) | Very Hard |
| Museum of History | On the 2nd floor. | Very Hard |
| National Archives | Along the "front door" (long way) entrance to Button Gwinnett's office. | Very Hard |
| Nuka-Cola Factory | Door straight ahead as you enter. It can be opened from other side with a switch on the left. | Very Hard |
| Oasis | Gate to the Damp Caves to fulfill the Oasis quest. | Very Hard |
| Old Olney | Old Olney Sewers has one. | Very Hard |
| Rivet City | In the Broken Bow at the west end of the ship. Watch out for the frag mine on the left as soon as you enter. This door can also be unlocked by activating a flip switch just on the other side of the door if you enter the Broken Bow the long way (underwater entrance). | Very Hard |
| Rockbreaker's Last Gas | Gun Locker in the Abandoned Shack at the top of the cliff. Contains the Victory Rifle. | Very Hard |
| Roosevelt Academy | Roosevelt Library | Very Hard |
| SatCom Array NW-07c | First Aid Kit 50 metres away due East inside at the back of a blue semi-truck. Also find "Internment Orders" holotape at the mouth of the truck's rear opening. | Very Hard |
| Springvale School | On the lower level - leads to an unfinished tunnel towards Vault 101 | Very Hard |
| Springvale School | On the second level - ammunition box located next to a terminal. | Easy |
| VAPL-58 Power Station | Safe inside, also north of it, inside a walled up cable tower. | Very Hard |
| Wheaton Armory | In a very radioactive bunker with an excellent stash of weapons behind it. | Very Hard |
| Tenpenny tower | in the clothes shop to the right orf the enterance(2, locks 1 safe and 1 inventory) hard or very hard
in the boutique to the left of the enterance(2, locks 1 safe and 1 inventory) hard or very hard |
Behind the scenes
- The way in which lock picking is portrayed in Fallout 3 is almost completely inaccurate. A torque wrench (screwdriver) and a pick (bobby pin) are present, but the action of actually picking the lock is nothing like what a pin tumbler lock or most other locks with a cylindrical design would require to successfully manipulate the lock.
Bugs
Once your bobby pin breaks if you immediately press the "Force Lock" key the lock will be picked. The screwdriver continues moving with out a pin hitting any tumblers.
