Jagged Alliance 3 – How Does Lockpicking Work

A detailed guide on how the lockpicking system works in the Jagged Alliance 3 game.

Lockpicking Explained

Don’t know the usual number, the game has difficulty settings defined in:

const.DifficultyPresetsNew

(Which I think are set by the map designers)

• None = 0
• Easy = 30
• Medium = 50
• Hard = 70
• Very Hard = 90
• Always = 100
• Impossible = -1*

*(Will be checked before any other check and automatically fail the check).

On top of that there’s an additional difficulty (which can be random):

additionalDifficulty = InteractionRand(20, “Lockpick”) / 2

Which, if I’m not misreading the InteracterionRand function, should add up to 10 more points, as the maximum would be 20 and we half that.

Note: Read also a helpful guide with tips for playing Jagged Alliance 3 on high difficulty, including lock picking tips!

Now the check itself first looks if the tool has a bonus for the skillcheck (it’s a negative number, as it lowers the difficulty).

• Vickies tool = -10
• The-Sci-Fi Crowbar = -15
• Everything Else = 0

Then it adds the Difficulty from above (so e.g. “hard” = 70; + additional Difficulty of 10 => 80).

Now it looks if the Merc got the MrFixit Perk, which gives a whopping 15 bonus and substracts that from the difficulty.

• Mr.Fixit = -15

Now it does the SkillCheck(unit, “Mechanical”, difficulty) – which has no roll and just looks if the Merc Skill is greater than the difficulty.

If you fail by more than 20 points then the lock will get blocked.