Fallout: New Vegas
75 Achievements
1655 XP
60-80h
Hack the Mojave
Hack 25 terminals.
15 XP
2.0%
How to unlock the Hack the Mojave achievement in Fallout: New Vegas - Definitive Guide
Some of these require a high science level and I think 2 of them require 100 on lockpicking to open the door to the terminals. Both of those skills at 100 are recommended for the story anyway so I'd make sure you have those both at 100 before even hitting all these places :
Goodsprings - Bar
Goodsprings - School
Primm - Bison Hotel
Sunset Sarsaprilla Factory - (2) inside the building
Crimson Caravan - Main office building
Camp Golf - (2) in the resort house 1st floor
Black Mountain - (2) in the main radio tower part & (1) in the prison building.
Reppcon HQ - (3) on the 1st floor, (3) on the 2nd floor & (1) on the third floor. I found a total of (7) in this building.
Camp Searchlight - (4) are located on the 4 turret placements in the main city. This camps location is near the bottom of the map towards the center. There is radiation in the area as well so have some Rad-X or Rad-Away handy while your roaming through the place.
NCR Headquarters on the vegas strip (3 Total) - (1) in the Military police HQ & (2) in the NCR Embassy
Helios One (1)
Vault 3 - Living Quarters (2)
Brotherhood of Steel Hidden Valley Bunkers (2)
Hoover Dam (1)
Vault 21 (1)
There are more terminals but you only need 25 so pick & choose what ones you want to do from the list above. There are a few that you can find while doing quests so you may not need to hit some of these locations I listed above. Be warned that the NCR will basically hate you after hacking the terminals at the embassy so a fight will ensue more then likely. You may also piss off other factions on some of these terminal hacks as well so a suggestion is to do these towards the end of the game. When your about the make the choice for the different faction achievements you can just make a spare save and just fast travel to most of these locations and hack the terminals then go back and reload that save once you've gotten the terminal hacking achievement.
Great guide, bout to start on your list right now. Thumbs up.
If you're having a hard time solving the password, use this solver to compute the correct password:
http://kennelbound.com/fallout3/
There are not nearly as many terminals in the game as there were in Fallout 3 and the vast majority seem to be scattered throughout buildings.
Some terminal locations, taken from a forum on x360a:
Vault 11 - 2 (1 easy, 1 hard)
Camp Golf - 2 (1 easy, 1 hard)
Goodsprings- Schoolhouse and Prospector Saloon
Primm- The Bison Steve Hotel
Sunset Sarsaparilla Headquarters- Theres about 3 or 4 in there.
NCR Embassy on The Strip- 2 in there, 1 in the building on opposite side
Crimson Caravan Company- I believe there's one in main office
Black Mountain- two in the bottom level of the radio station, 1 is in the prison building but its a very hard lock
REPPCON HQ- 3 on first floor, one is very hard. second floor has two, one is behind a locked door, top floor has two, one is very hard.
Hidden Valley Bunker- at least three or four in there.
Helios One- One in the solar collection tower
Vault 3- At least 4 or 5 scattered around the various levels
Camp Searchlight- 4 or 5 located around the friendly turrets. One is a very hard lock.
The following skill books will help you boost your Science skill if it is lower:
Brewer's Beer Bootlegging: In the basement of the shack, on the table with the vial experiment, opposite the still.
REPCONN Headquarters: Inside the headquarters, on a shelf inside the Gift Shop storeroom, near the Rocket Souvenirs.
Nipton: On the mayor's desk, top floor of the Town Hall, next to the Programmer's Digest magazine.
Camp Forlorn Hope: Inside Major Polatli's tent, in the far right corner, on a desk.
Having 100 science will make the hacking of easier terminals quicker, as less options will be present, and will allow the hacking of Very Hard terminals.
You can check your progress in the Pip-Boy by going to the Misc section of the Data area, then hitting Y to view the challenges, then moving the the Other Challenges page. The pertaining challenge is called Healthy Glow.
Marker - Skill - Location
*Goodsprings* (2) - 25 - 1 in the Prospector Saloon, 1 in the Schoolhouse
*Primm* - 25 - Inside The Bison Steve Casino
*Lucky 38* - 75 - Top Level, will put all Securitons on the level to Hostile
*Crimson Caravan Company* - 50 - Inside the CCC compound in the Main Office building
*The Gomorrah* - 50 - Inside of the casino, 2nd floor, Big Sal's office. Can anger Big Sal
*Camp Golf* (2) - 25 and 75 - Inside the large House Resort building (do not be on bad terms with the NCR or the Rangers will be hostile)
*Camp McCarran* (2) - 15 and 50 - 1 in the Supply Shack in front of the Terminal Building, 1 behind the terminal building
*H&H Tools Factory* - 50 - 2nd floor inside House's office (watch for mines, rigged shotguns, pressure plates, and robots/turrets)
*REPCONN HQ* (7) - 15-100 - 3 on the ground floor, 2 on the second floor, and 2 on the top floor (1 of the 2 on the top floor is Very Hard) (Watch for robots on the top floor)
*Sunset Sarsaparilla HQ* (3) - 15-50 - All are on the factory floor; watch for robots
*NCR Military HQ* - 25 - Upon entrance, it will be the second terminal on the right wall
*Zapp's Neon Signs* - 25 - Go down the stairs, past Duke and his fiends, up some metal stairs and go to the Foreman's Office.
*Vault 3* (6) - 15, 50, and 75 - Scattered about, 4 in the Living Quarters and 2 in the Maintenance Area. Requires 75 lockpicking or some extra exploring. Refer to the link at the bottom of this solution for more information
*Vault 21* (2) - 25 and 100 - 1 upon entrance to the Gift Shop to your right, 1 in the bottom most level, most northeastern room
Those are the easiest 31 from my opinion.
The biggest trouble is Vault 3, full of fiends and a mini-boss, Motor-Runner. For some more information, check this link out:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault_3
For any trouble locating any of these places, refer to a map of the Mojave or this link:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Hack_the_Mojave
That link will also provide you with the locations of 16 more terminals that are tougher to get to, yet can yield some decent rewards for your troubles.
(groups of symbols will be in between matching sets of brackets. Thanks to WhiteTreeWolf for pointing this out)
Use your Science skill to bypass security on 25 terminals. Bear in mind that some terminals require a minimum score in Science to even attempt. A number of words will be down on the screen among the background of ASCII gibberish. The harder the lock, the more letters the word is. Much like the old game Mastermind, when you guess a word you'll be told how many letters are correct in your guess, leaving it to you to figure out from subsequent guesses which letters were in the right positions. Choose words that have similar structure and see if your total goes up or down. After the fourth guess however, if you haven't selected the correct answer the terminal will lock down preventing your access.
If you're having trouble, remember that after three unsuccessful attempts you can still back out to prevent the terminal from locking down on the fourth guess. The terminal will change the password but better that than shutting you out entirely. You can then log back on to the terminal and give it another try. Keep track of your progress on the Stats screen of your Pip-Boy.
When a terminal is locked, you must play a puzzle to unlock it (if you have the prerequisite science level). The puzzle works by you getting four guesses to choose the password from the given words. If you guess wrong, the terminal will tell you how many letters you got correct (but not where). Unless you are absolutely sure, always back out of the terminal instead of making a fourth guess to avoid getting locked out. You can try again on the terminal and will just have to wait through about 5 seconds of typing before starting over. As mentioned before, this can be done in conjunction with "No Tumbler Fumbler" by hacking the terminal next to a locked door but then picking the lock. Should you fail a little too often, the Computer Whiz (Int 7, Science 70) perk will let you try again a few more times.
Let no one else suffer with this trophy the same way as I did.
1. Goodsprings => Prospector Saloon => utility room (Locked - Easy)
2. Goodsprings => Schoolhouse (Locked - Easy)
3. Camp Searchlight => NCR Storage => (Locked - Average)
4. The Fort => Weather Monitoring Station => in one of the rooms near the entrance (Locked - Average)
5. Repconn Headquarters (HQ) => Main Floor => to the right of the entrance (Locked - Average)
6. Repconn HQ => 2nd Floor => opposite the entrance on the map (Locked - Very Easy)
7. Repconn HQ => 2ndFloor => central part of the floor (Locked - Hard)
8. Repconn HQ => Top Floor => east wing (Locked - Very Hard)
9. Repconn HQ => Main Floor => north wing (Locked - Very Hard)
10. Vault 34 => 1st Floor => northern part (Locked - Very Hard)
11. Vault 34 => Armory => Security Station A, after turning on the spillway (Locked - Very Hard)
12. Vault 11 => Living Quarters => central part, bottom floor (Locked - Very Easy)
13. Vault 11 => Living Quarters => southwest (Locked - Hard)
14. Hidden Valley Bunker => => to the right of the entrance, in Ramos' room (Locked - Hard)
15. Hidden Valley Bunker => => southeastern part (Locked - Very Hard)
16. The Thorn => Lucy's Chamber (Locked - Very Easy)
17. Vault 3 => Maintenance Wing => to the left of the entrance (Locked - Average)
18. Vault 3 => Maintenance Wing => eastern part (Locked - Average)
19. The Strip => southern part => NCR Military Police HQ (Locked - Easy)
20. The Strip => southern part => NCR Embassy => opposite the entrance (Locked - Easy)
21. The Strip => southern part => NCR Embassy => in the ambassador's office (Locked - Average)
22. The Strip => Gomorrah Casino => Big Sal's Office => 2nd floor stairs
23. Crimson Caravan Company => Main Office (Locked - Average)
24. Sunset Sarsaparilla HQ => Factory Floor => small room in the northeast (Locked - Hard)
25. Sunset Sarsaparilla HQ => Factory Floor => northern part, at the exit to the wasteland (Locked - Very Easy)
26. H&H Tools Factory => second floor (Locked - Average)
27. Black Mountain => Prison Building (Locked - Very Hard)
28. Camp Golf => House Resort (Locked - Easy)
29. Camp Golf => House Resort (Locked - Hard)