Become a Lockpicking GOD | Security Explained | Starfield Handbook

I am 200.8 hours into my Starfield, and I am just now learning that those inner rings glow blue when a shape is usable

That'sexactly how I pick mine lol

This is kinda how I take care of locks I just feel alot of these master locks hold dissapointing amounts of loot most of the time

If your real life intelligence is fairly high these locks are very boring.

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click container
unlock
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now you never have to waste time with this boring system again

I solved this problem by getting just one rank of Security. I think the first point gives the most value since it doubles the number of locks you pick and the puzzles are faster to solve than expert and master.

I have wasted soooo many digipicks. Thanks for making this I feel like a dummy

You have saved me a pick or five. Many thanks. 😎

I used this method before I got skills enough for lock picking. But when you get more skills, just make sure you try to use the high level picks as early as possible.

SECURITY: The question is: do you really need to crack the expert and master locks? Is there super OP gear behind these doors/chests? No. Is it necessary to pick expert and master locks to get special outcomes on quests? No. Then what is behind the master locks? Credits. So, this is mostly pointless. Also, you can occasionally get randomly generated Legendary gear that is usually not useful. So, you might wind up with even more stuff to sell for Credits. <sigh> Even more annoying and more pointless. I would hope to see Unique(one of a kind) Advanced/Legendary gear, not just another Legendary(Boring!). But I have never come across this.
The rewards you get from picking locks do not correlate to the level of the lock. The loot behind Master locks does not appear to be any more special/powerful than the loot behind Advanced locks. One would think that a more difficult lock would guard more valuable loot, but that does not seem to be the case. In fact I have come across many Master locked doors/chests that have essentially nothing of value behind them. How many times have I opened a Master lock to find less than 100 credits and some random ammo? Too many damn times.

Amazing video. Thanks.

I haven't done master yet. but every time i do it, i just ensure all 4 are solved before i trigger the rings

What I find to work the best for expert and master level locks is to just start with the innermost ring and work your way outward, so you will immediately know which pieces have to be saved and which ones are all still free. That way you never rush through and use a four piece combo on ring two when it actually needed to be saved for ring 4

Watching this being played on PC is really illustrating for me how cumbersome navigating these pick puzzles are on console with a controller.

Another tip to pick faster is to save your auto attempts for situations where many picks will fit a particular ring. Saves you from needing to solve the whole puzzle at once.

You know, knowing about the rings changing color would have made a difference. I was using division to solve my puzzles. If a ring has 8, then a 4/4, 3/3/2, or a 2/2/2/2, just gotta figure which numbers will fit based on what picks are available. For the most part, it works, but like you said i tend to use a pick too early. Definitely going to start using this trick

Wtf

I never look at inner rings..Maybe 1 out of 10 times i'll dead end on master locks. I just make sure I do each ring in 2 moves or less and it usually works out in the end 🤷🏼‍♂️

Tbh I use mod for that, it is so annoying later, or simply ingore the containers it is not worth the time, there is nothing important or good, the tier of the locks does not affect the rewards, so it is useless.

You’re going places bro there’s a vacuum in the market of Starfield content right now keep up the good work I appreciate you

Nice. Solve the whole puzzle before you slot anything. Smart plan. I'm going to use this tactic moving forward for sure. Thanks for the video!

I created a method to help me solving backwards. Trying to solve the inner circle first, I can have a visual with all my used picks before start the first circle.

Good tips! Something else that occasionally helps me is that in most case I've seen, you'll use 2 rings per "layer" of a lock. This can help narrow things down a bit sometimes. For example, if a layer has 7 slots, you know you'll likely need to use a 4-tab and a 3-tab ring to complete it (since rings have between 1 and 4 tabs).

I have been doing this the whole damn time xD I will use rank 4 though since that seems so much easier to do

I hate that blue means it will fit, but not that it should go there yet

Why 4 for the first ring when it’s 5 gaps that’s why I’m confused because it can be a mix of keys like a 3,2 or 2,2,1 or a 4,1 combo to unlock the outer ring

Works for Xbox? need xbox tutorials we can’t skip over and select any ring…xbox has to select a ring in order as they appear next to each other which makes it harder because the ones we can’t use it’s hard to remember which one because we can’t mark it out with an “X”

This is confusing please remake because for example you say this needs 4 to go on that ring. Your not specifically saying for which ring like the inner 1st ring or the 3rd ring I have to guess which one your pointing at because your mouse pointer is moving so fast plus you talk fast lol but that’s what pause is for

I'm 165 hours in, and i don't even wanna do the lock puzzles anymore. I just wont it to open automatically.

I never noticed the color change. I always do this from the inside out. This should save me some time.

Wow didn't know about the glowing blue thing. For master's I'll jsut use 1 autoslot to solve one of the outer picks which makes solving it very obvious then that basically just leaves you with an expert lock. then with that i just work inside out aligning everything and then close them all quick. this is gonna make it way easier

My process starts with looking for any picks that only fit with the corresponding ring, especially for master level

-All rings only need two picks. No less, no more.
1) Find the most complicated pick that fits in the current ring (preferably that only fits in this and not in any other rings)
2)Find if there is a pick that fits in all the empty spaces. (If there isn't go back to step one, but use second most complicated pick)
3) Don't be afraid to pop one auto-slot for master locks.

For me I use a method that is a lot quicker and just a little bit less safe for advanced+ locks. I'll see which pick with the most spikes fits in the least amount of rings, fits in the current ring, and can be completed with other picks (pretty much just skipping solving lower locks.) It might not be quite as accurate as the one you said, but it's still 90%+ in my experience and you save a lot of headaches remembering which pick goes where on what level.

I love the lockpicking but as always Bethesda still doesnt scale loot gained with lock difficulty. First master lock i opened it was a box of ammo and a 100ish credits........ are you kidding me....

On your master lock example, it looks like you slotted a 3 pick into a 2 gap ring. I've rewound the video several times now and I'm super confused.

I solve for the inner rings then work my way out to see if it is possible to solve it not perfect but it better

Best so far.

I have a few people on discord talking about how they are wanting to install the 'easy locks' mod because it's too hard... or repetitive. I agree with it being repetitive, but I found a common enemy in small chests that have garbage loot in them with advanced or higher locks... absolutely pointless imo.
That being said, I've mastered master locks without removing keys or anything... Just work backwards, because you can figure out what goes in the center and then set the keys in the right spots, and the master lock will be done super fast. You sort of did, but I don't like to work from the 2nd ring or 3rd before i figured out the middle, but I guess it works anyway.

I have had a case where two extremely similar pick keys seemed to be right but they were slightly off, so I can see how eliminating unused keys helps in that case... but most of the time I just take a few seconds to look at it.
I picked my first master lock on try #1 (showing off to the people who glitched the constellation armor case lol)

Funny enough I didn't even know the blue ring thing xD

I think they overcomplicated this mechanic. I think Oblivion had the best difficulty for security puzzle

If only there was a way to mark. My brain sure can't keep track of which ones I already matched or rejected. But it kinda helps (the brain) to accept that you might make mistakes, and have to pay for them in picks. Rather than frying the old thinker, trying to save every pick. Plus, you can totally afford it. No one in this game at like lvl10 is gonna be poor. Maybe Survival and True Survival modes will change that, will be interesting.

I Love your Starfeild content!

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do you mark them with a tick/cross?

on very hard u only see the next ring, also some locks are not solvable , like only one thing slots first, then none slot in the next. Since these things are bullshit, after i got master lockpicking I just installed the easy lockpicking mod, cause this puzzle is a waste of time :P

Problem is, with procedural generation, you could spend 10 minutes opening a Master and get crap. Yet 30 seconds on an easy lock and you get an epic weapon! There is no value to the lock difficulties.

These are 10 second puzzles at most, what the hell is this video???

Glad to see I was doing it decently already, my method isn't too dissimilar to yours (I probably eyeball it sloppily more than you do though, which will result in wasted digipicks as I mess up, but that's okay). And I agree 100% that it becomes a lot easier (and more fun) once you're rank 2 in the lockpicking skill since the rings turning blue when a pick would fit changes everything. I'm not a natural "puzzle guy" but I am someone who has to open every lock I see so I ranked up the skill and was glad to see it does get easier with some more experience.

I'm not completely sure how "banking" auto slots works, but I try to save them for Master locks so I can get the first row (at least) sorted, and once the first row is sorted then it's an easy race to the finish. I really like how Bethesda made their lockpicking mini game into something you actually have to THINK to figure out, that's an impressive change to me. I've only played Skyrim VR and FO4 VR so I'm not a Bethesda fan from the olde days, but to me the lockpicking in those games was just a brute force fiddly thing that ya didn't need to think to solve (people who are experts on the mechanic may disagree of course). Even though I'm not a puzzle-fan generally I think their digipick mini game is great.

45 hours in and I hadn't realized the unfilled slots in the ring stayed behind when you used picks, I thought I just got random rings during the mini game. This helped so much!

SO THAT'S WHAT THE CHANGING COLORS MEANS... That makes lockpicking so much easier!

I’m good at getting it done in 30 seconds too.