Starfield lockpicking: how to use Digipicks
One of the few systems that always gets a completely fresh take in every Bethesda IP is the lockpicking/hacking system. While The Elder Scroll’s simple positioning minigame is easy to understand, and Fallout’s word puzzles are easy enough to grasp after a few attempts, Starfield’s pin game regularly stumps us.
However, after looting the galaxy and picking our fair share of locks, we have a solid understanding of how it works and how to ensure success every time, so we’ll guide you through the Starfield lockpicking minigame.
There are plenty more head-scratching puzzles in Starfield, like the Starfield's Mantis side-quest, or figuring out how to complete Temples in Starfield.
Starfield Digipicks explained
Bethesda
There are four difficulty levels, each of which determines the number of rings you must clear and how many picks you have to choose from: Novice & Advanced both have two rings, Expert has three, and Master has four. To pick a lock you must fill all the holes in every ring, using the differently-shaped pins you can see on the right-hand side. You can cycle through them and then move them around on the circle until they line up with the gaps.
The key (pun intended) is thinking ahead. Don’t use a pick immediately just because it fits a gap, as it might leave you with a shape you can’t fit anywhere, or you might’ve needed that specific shape on one of the later rings. You can consume extra Digipicks to undo mistakes, but it’s better to simply plan ahead, and don’t insert anything until you’re sure you can make the rest of the layers fit.
If you get too deep in and realize you’ve made an early mistake, it’s better to simply quit and retry with a new puzzle, as that will only cost you one Digipick while undoing all your previous moves will cost you several.
However, if you really are stuck, then you can always use our list of Starfield console commands to automatically unlock something for you, though bear in mind that this will disable your achievements.
How to upgrade your Lockpicking skill in Starfield
Bethesda
If you want to open more advanced locks with Digipicks, you'll need to upgrade your Security perk, which is a Tier 1 tech perk. Ranks 1 through 3 will let you pick increasing difficulties of lock, but rank 4 allows you spend a Digipick to remove picks that aren't useful during the minigame, narrowing down your options.
How to get more Digipicks in Starfield
Bethesda
While some random enemies can drop Digipicks, you’re much better off buying them, as they only cost a handful of credits each. Most vendors in the world will stock between one and three Digipicks. If you want to stock up, then vendors replenish their stocks every 24 in-game hours, so you can repeatedly sleep to get all the picks you want.
That isn't the only trick for getting easy Digipicks though; you can check our guide on where to get Digipicks in Starfield for more.
Our Starfield walkthrough has everything else that you need.
