Star Wars Outlaws Lockpicking & Hacking (Slicing) guide

Much of the gameplay in Star Wars Outlaws is stealth-focused, so you’ll be doing plenty of lockpicking with your data spike and slicing with your… slicer?

Both of these mechanics have some finicky puzzles and minigames to complete, and they can be a little tricky to get your head around when you first boot up the game.

Here’s how you can easily get to grips with lockpicking and slicing in Star Wars Outlaws, and how you can turn off these minigames altogether.

Basics of Lockpicking

When lockpicking a door, you’ll see a massive circular cog fill your screen with a couple of LED lights on the right-hand side. You’ll see the top light flash and beep in a particular rhythm, matching up with the clicks as the cog spins.

To successfully lockpick a door, you’ll need to press a button in time with the rhythm of the flashing light and beep. On PlayStation and Xbox, this is the right trigger. On PC, it’s the left mouse button.

Locks with a harder difficulty will have a more tricky pattern to match. I recommend listening to the rhythm two or three times before pressing any buttons, and then giving it a go once you think you’ve got the pattern nailed down. It might help to drum out the sequence on your desk or leg if you’re having trouble getting it right.

The bottom LED lights up when you press the button, so you can easily see if you’ve matched the timing correctly. When you manage to hit all the beats at the right time, you’ll hear a satisfying click and the door will open.

How to make Lockpicking easier

If, like me, you’re rhythmically challenged, then there are a couple of ways you can make the lockpicking minigame a little easier.

Head to the Gameplay section of the Settings menu, and scroll down to the Minigames tab. Here, you’ll see a bunch of options to make lockpicking easier.

Firstly, I recommend switching the Lockpicking Difficulty setting to Easy. This will give you a little more leeway if you happen to hit the button slightly out of sync with the rhythm.

You can also enable Lockpicking Visual Cues. This will show a small white ring that gets smaller as the right beat approaches, giving you advanced warning of when you should be pressing the button.

Alternatively, you can turn off the Lockpicking Minigame altogether. If you do this, you’ll just need to mash the lockpick button whenever you go to open a locked door. You’ll encounter this minigame hundreds of times while playing Star Wars Outlaws, so if it’s already frustrating you in the early hours, you should probably consider turning this setting off.

Slicing Basics

Slicing is the Star Wars universe's equivalent of hacking and is mostly used when you need to break into locked computer terminals.

If you’ve ever played Wordle, this minigame operates in a very similar manner. You’ll see a grid on the right and a keypad of symbols on the left. You need to figure out the three-symbol combination password to complete the Slicing challenge.

Start by picking three random symbols, and they’ll appear in the grid on the right. They’ll then turn a certain colour, which each has the corresponding meaning:

• Blue: This symbol is in the correct column
• Yellow: This symbol is part of the password but isn’t in the correct column
• Red: This symbol isn’t part of the password

You can use your skills of deduction and process of elimination to slowly chip away at finding the correct password.

There’s a limit to how many passwords you can try, though. Make sure you’re choosing your symbols carefully. Otherwise, you’ll need to start the process again. As far as I can tell, these puzzles are randomised each time, so we can’t provide dedicated guides for each terminal - sorry!

There isn’t a punishment for failing a Slicing attempt, though. If you don’t manage to crack it on the first try, just load it up and try again.

How to make Slicing easier

Just like lockpicking, there are settings you can use to make Slicing a bit easier.

Head to the Gameplay section of the Settings menu, and scroll down to the Slicing section. Here, you’ll see an option to automatically give yourself more Slicing Attempts. This will give you more of a chance to figure out a tricky password if you have a nightmare with your first symbol guesses.

The second option here replaces the symbols with numbers. This is more of an accessibility option if you struggle to make out what the symbols look like from a distance. Given the colours are more of an important factor in this minigame, I don’t see this option being totally useful.

If you truly can’t stand playing Wordle in the middle of your Star Wars game, you can turn these puzzles off completely by unchecking the Slicing toggle. This will mean you’ll just need to press a single button when hacking terminals, and you’ll be set to go.