Every time you add a number or symbol, you're not just adding another building block; you're adding a whole new layer of security. When attackers attempt to crack passwords, they often employ automated tools to guess all possible combinations. The more types of characters you use—lowercase, uppercase, numbers, symbols—the more combinations there are. This dramatically increases the time these tools require to guess passwords. It's akin to trying to breach a fortress built from unpredictable combinations of steel, stone, and diamond bricks, with each layer being even more perplexing and difficult to penetrate than the previous one.