Bypass

Mass Effect
Bypassing a locked crate, terminal, mineral or door in Mass Effect requires a tech user with Decryption and/or Electronics to play a mini-game involving an arrow moving through rings of moving obstacles towards the centre.

During the mission to recruit Liara T'Soni by activating a mining laser and to disable the anomolous signal on the citadel there is an alternative mini-game involving a sequence.

During the mission on Noveria, restarting Mira's memory core is a type of bypass involving the Towers of Hanoi.

Mass Effect 2
Bypass and Hacking are no longer associated with Electronics and Decryption skills. Shepard can perform these with any object regarless of which class and squadmates are selected.

Bypass
Many objects and areas in Mass Effect 2 can only be accessed after completing a Bypass mini-game. When the player finds an object or doorway that requires Bypass to unlock, a circuit board background appears on screen with an arrangement of three to five pairs of blue nodes. These nodes contain hidden icons that must be matched with each other--each pair is associated with a lock on the right side of the screen that opens when each pair is matched.

In order to reveal the icons, the player must move a cursor over a node. Once that node is selected, however, all other nodes become unviewable, forcing the player to find matches before selecting the proper nodes. Selecting the wrong node or failing to match all nodes before the timer runs out will cause the bypass to fail. Depending on the object, the player may only get one try.

The nodes are never placed at random, but are connected according to the lines on the circuit board, which can be used in lieu of previewing the icons. However, their close proximity may reduce this method's usefulness to some players.

It should be noted that the Bypass mini-game occurs in real-time. If the player takes damage during the mini-game, the Bypass fails.

Hacking
Hacking presents a different mini-game in Mass Effect 2. The Hacking mini-game brings up a display with three columns of boxes that scroll upwards. The boxes contain an assortment of text patterns. The player must select a box that matches the Target Code Segment given in the top-left of the display. Completing the hack requres the player to do this three times.

Scattered through the columns are red boxes overlaid with an "X." Selecting these boxes will cancel a previously selected box, forcing the player to make up for that box by making another match. Also, the player has three attempts to select the correct boxes; selecting the wrong box counts against these attempts. If the player fails to match all three Target Code Segments within the allotted time or runs out of attempts, the hack fails. Depending on the object, the player may only get one try.

As with Bypass, Hacking occurs in real time and any damage to the player during the process will cause the attempt to fail.

The player can purchase a Bypass Module and Hack Module in-game that will substantially increase the allotted time for solving these mini-games.