How to Decrypt Nuke Codes in Fallout 76
Launching a nuke in Fallout 76 takes a lot of work… Which is probably a good thing since we don’t want irradiated devastation flying around willy-nilly. It doesn’t hurt to have a bit guidance and a handy shortcut along the way. Even with these decryption tips, it won’t be super simple. Here’s how to decrypt nuke codes in Fallout 76.
What You Need to Launch a Nuke
- A nuclear keycard
- A decrypted launch code
Sounds simple enough; but how do you get those things?
The Enclave Holds the Key
First of all, a great way to accomplish all of the steps required to launch a nuke is by joining the Enclave. The Enclave will offer fetch-quests that have you seek out the codes and keycards required for launch, and will even offer helpful tracking systems to find them. Check out our guide on how and where to find this powerful faction. Ok back to the codes.
How to Decrypt the Code Yourself
Those glowing letters and numbers you get from feral ghoul officers are the encrypted pieces of the final launch code. You’ll need to use a cipher to decode them into a series of numbers that will launch a nuke. There are 3 different nuclear silos that you can launch nukes from (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie), and each silo has a corresponding code that’s 8 numbers long.
Once you have 8 codes for a silo you’ll need to head to the Enclave headquarters to obtain the keyword needed to decipher the codes (another reason why it’s easier to work with this faction throughout the process).
Each week (possibly every Monday?) the keyword required to decrypt the silo codes resets. Each day after that reset, a part of the keyword will be revealed one letter at a time. If you have all of the codes and a nuclear keycard ready you can try your hand at decrypting the weekly keyword yourself, and then use that to figure out the launch code. Here’s how you’d do that.
Gain access to the Enclave bunker and then follow these steps:
- Say the keyword revealed in the Enclave bunker was “TWINFINITE”. You would then remove all the letters from the English alphabet that are included in the word TWINFINITE. Like this: ABCD_ _GH_JKLM_OPQRS_UV_XYZ. Condensed together it looks like this ABCDGHJKLMOPQRSUVXYZ
- Next, take the keyword and place it at the beginning of this jumble of remaining alphabet letters; like this: TWINFINITEABCDGHJKLMOPQRSUVXYZ
- The above letters are the new alphabet you’ll use to decrypt the code (in the game it will actually be 26 letters).
- Now, place the complete English alphabet above the new decrypting-alphabet you just created, and get out those code pieces you collected. Find each letter on the code pieces in the decrypting alphabet and then see which corresponding letter on the complete English alphabet it would be. For example, a code piece that has the letter “T” would actually be the letter “A” if TWINFINITE was the Enclave keyword.
- You’ll end up with a scramble of 8 letters. Use your skills to descramble the letters into an actual English word.
- Once you’ve untangled the word jumble into an actual word, you’re going to translate it using the same real-alphabet/decrypting alphabet combination you used above in step 4.
- You’ll now have another jumble of 8 letters. Match these 8 letters with the corresponding code pieces you collected, and you’ll have yourself an 8-digit launch code!
Need Some Help Decrypting?
The website NukaCrypt can help you with this tough keyword cipher process, however, it won’t do all the work for you. You’ll still need to obtain all the key codes to a corresponding nuclear silo, and you’ll also still need a nuclear keycard…or 10. We’ll explain why.
To use NukaCrpyt you’ll enter in the letters and numbers of the key codes you’ve found, along with however much of the cipher keyword has been revealed. The website will then pump-out a code (or multiple codes) that could work based on the information you’ve supplied.
The keyword of the week doesn’t need to be fully revealed, however the more information the better. Enter question marks into the NukaCrypt code generator for letters of the Enclave keyword that are not yet known.
The less information you provide for the NukaCrypt code generator, the more possible launch code combinations you’ll get in return. You could end up with upwards of 10 different launch code possibilities, and each of these codes will require a nuclear keycard to try out (which are not easy to get).
So try deciphering as much of that Enclave keyword you can, or wait until a good chunk of it has been revealed for you as the week progresses. Just don’t wait too long and have the weekly code reset on you!
If you’re looking for more help with the game, be sure to check out our Fallout 76 guide wiki for more tips and tricks. And let us know in the comments if you have any questions (or know when exactly the cipher keyword resets).
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