A Puzzling Development

(I love my boyfriend to death, but he is the worst backseat gamer I have ever met. This happens on my first play session for the game Fallout 4, which has been out for almost a year at this point and on which he has clocked many hours. I have asked him several times already to only offer help when I ask for it, but he keeps getting carried away.)

Boyfriend: “Okay, so you’ll probably like this puzzle. You need to guess the password to get through the gate. All of those words are possible passwords, and when you guess one, it’ll tell you how many letters you got correct.”

Me: “Okay, so it’s kind of like Mastermind.”

Boyfriend: “See all those other characters in between the words? There are secret bonuses hidden in there. Like, if you select those two brackets, it resets the number of guesses you get.”

Me: “Okay, I’ve got it.”

(I choose a word, and get zero correct letters. I scan the list, and choose another word with completely different letters and get one correct.)

Boyfriend: “Right about now you’re gonna want to go to the brackets and use the power-up.”

Me: “Okay…”

(I do so, and then go back to scanning the possible passwords to match letters.)

Boyfriend: “You should probably go into the code and see if there are any more bonuses.”

Me: “Will you please just let me do this?”

Boyfriend: “Sorry!”

(Once again, he backs off, and I scan the passwords for matching letters. On my very next try, the gate opens.)

Boyfriend: “How did you do that?”

Me: “I was looking at the letters.”

Boyfriend: “I mean, how are you so good at that?”

Me: “I’m just better at puzzle games. Don’t give me that look. I got lost seven times on the way to this town. I had to be good at something.”