Cheaters are a big problem for many players in Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare. Now, a hacker has spoken up and gives players and developers tips on dealing with the nasty cheaters.
What tips does he have? On the discussion platform Reddit, different worlds often collide, fighting for their opinions with the sharpest weapons of the internet: words.
This time, an outed hacker visited the “Modern Warfare” subreddit and left a few tips for players and developers of Call of Duty: Warzone & MW:
- How do you kill a hacker?
- How can developers better detect cheaters?
- What feature would help in the fight against them?
The thread is very popular and has already collected nearly 9,700 upvotes (July 23, 9:30 AM). MeinMMO shows you the suggestions and explains the tactics the hacker proposes against cheaters in Call of Duty.
Who is this hacker? The thread creator is “DeclanH23”. A few months ago, he already gave tips on how the CoD developers can better detect aimbot hackers and now has a new pair of insights to share.
The cheater introduces himself as a former hacker in Battlefield 4 and GTA Online, who plagued servers with hacks for 5 years. He does not say whether he is completely reformed and no longer cheats, but claims he would neither play nor mod CoD. However, he has the relevant expertise from his experience to give tips against hackers in first-person shooters.
Hacker Gives Tips Against Cheaters
How can I deal with a hacker? The most important tip for players that he can offer from his experience is titled “How to kill a hacker”. Right away: Unfortunately, he cannot provide a cure-all against cheaters in CoD. However, he suggests that it helps to know how cheaters see the game and have an advantage over you.
The hacker states that it is not the aimbot that takes you down, but the ESP (Extra Sensory Perception). This allows cheaters to see all players with their exact positions, even through walls and at long distances.
As a result, they don’t have to worry about whether a grinning camper is hiding in a house waiting for his victim or whether a fully equipped team suddenly comes around the corner and opens fire with their upgraded weapons.
To deal with a hacker, you need to lure him towards you and deal with explosives. The riot shield is excellent for this, but it also requires luck and planning. It’s best to have team members you can coordinate with.
If you spot a hacker, according to the hacker’s opinion, you only have 3 options:
- Lure him into an explosive trap, with C4, claymores, or whatever you have at hand.
- Draw fire onto you with the shield and let your buddies deal with him.
- If you have neither a shield nor explosives, then run for your life or leave the match.
In Warzone, running away could actually be effective. Maybe another team will take care of the cheater and eliminate the plague for the server. However, in multiplayer, you will encounter the cheater again and again. Report the game ruiners and leave the match. Unfortunately, that’s usually all you can do.
Here you can see a CoD cheater on Twitch in action – he didn’t even realize that everyone can see his cheats.
The Cheater Also Has Tips for Developers
How can developers better detect cheaters? Next, the hacker explains which signs in player statistics are most suitable for effectively identifying cheaters. This info could help the developer from Infinity Ward to better categorize cheating soldiers. In total, he lists 3 indicators:
- An unusually high high score for “points per minute” with a certain weapon.
- An unusually high rate of headshot kills.
- The K/D does not match the playtime.
The points show how difficult it is to recognize hackers without separate tracking of cheating software. Point 1 is the clearest here. As an example, he provides a video of the YouTuber “jackfrags”. He was recently attacked by a massive cluster strike (via YouTube). If there are irregularities here, they are easy to recognize.
The other two points are less conclusive. CoD hacks allow you to pull the crosshair towards the torso, counteracting a high headshot rate.
Also, the K/D in relation to playtime is difficult to categorize. Here it could also be just good players who are new or using a new account. Simply assuming that these are hackers is not the optimal solution.
Cheaters who get by without hacks and rather use “glitches” can be even harder to identify through these indicators.
What feature could help against cheaters? He then suggests a feature for Warzone that could help slow down the hackers: vote-kicking. Suspicious players who have already been reported in a game can then be kicked by the remaining teammates.
The hacker states that this feature exists on some BF4 servers and also in GTA Online. His tools could never do anything against the kick when the other players decided to ban the hacker from the server.
Players Consider Current Protection Inadequate
What is CoD currently doing against hackers? The current anti-cheat measures are based on 2 pillars:
- A 24-hour security team that evaluates data and issues bans.
- Two-factor authentication for Warzone.
Many players feel that this is not enough and they wish for a stricter system to detect hacks. The big CoD YouTuber “Drift0r” is even considering quitting Warzone.
The competitive shooter “Valorant” forces its players, for example, to run anti-cheat software. If “Vanguard” is disabled, you cannot start the game. The program starts directly with the operating system, thereby protecting it from manipulations. What is criticized by some fans helps the Valorant team to obtain cheat data directly from the source.
The deterrent effect is also significantly higher when you know that an anti-cheat program is running. The two-factor authentication of Warzone goes in the same direction. You need a fresh phone number to create a new account, and linking hacks to your personal data can act as a deterrent. However, there are already offers where cheaters can buy a new account for 2 dollars, which unfortunately diminishes the effect again.
