You either die to a Warzone hacker, or play long enough to see yourself become the hacker.
Warzone’s hacking problem continues to run rampant and things have seemingly gotten worse in Season 1. In fact, it’s now a rare sight to find a lobby devoid of any forms of cheating. Things have gotten so bad that Call of Duty players like NICKMERCS have quit competitive Warzone tournaments for good, while Vikkstar has quit Warzone until the issue is fixed.
Frustratingly, Activision has yet to find a definitive solution to the increasing wave of hackers that ruin the game’s lobbies. Not only do hackers deprive normal players of any well-earned wins, they also keep competitive players from doing their jobs. However, one Warzone hacker has explained why they turned to the dark side.
Why do people cheat in Warzone?
During a recent livestream of Warzone, Call of Duty Twitch streamer exzachtt managed to speak to a Warzone hacker. Not only did exzachtt get some interesting insights into why people cheat, but he also managed to find out how easy it is for hackers to bypass Warzone’s anti-cheat system.
After watching the cheater run rampant across Verdansk, exzachtt decided to add them to a party in order to find out exactly why they cheat. “The game is so broken, there are so many hackers in this game that I thought, you know what, let me try it out,” says the Warzone cheater.
HACKING SYSTEM FULLY EXPLAINED pic.twitter.com/5IaYC58LhI
— exzachtt (@exzachtt) February 2, 2021
The allure of hacking is obviously incredibly strong for many Warzone players, particularly given how ineffective Activision’s current anti-cheat system is. “The only way [Activision] are going to do anything about it, is if enough [hackers] get reported. Because eventually, you’re going to join a lobby and there’s going to be 147 hackers and three people.”
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This statement, while extreme, does hold some forms of truth to it. After all, it’s becoming increasingly uncommon to play in lobbies without any forms of cheating going on. Many Warzone hackers have been brazen enough to stream their escapades, while others have even infiltrated the competitive scene.
How easy is it to cheat in Warzone?
When exzachtt asked how long this particular cheater had been hacking for, the aim-botter stated that he had been ruining games for three to four months. Exzachtt was obviously taken aback by this statement, saying “Wait, you’ve been hacking for four months and you still have not got banned?!”
“Oh, I’ve been banned multiple times,” explains the hacker. “I have a rotation of about 30 accounts that I rotate through. When you get banned, all they do is shadowban you because you’ve been suspected of cheating. However, when they pull your game logs and game files, there’s no hardware to show that you are cheating.”
According to the hacker, Activision only shadowban players suspected of cheating for eight days. This is essential a slap on the wrist and does little to obviously dissuade cheaters from simply playing on another account, or waiting for the shadowban to be lifted.
“You know how every Tuesday they update the game? Usually, by 8 or 9 pm EST, we can get back on because the hack is updated, explains the hacker. “When they update the game, they change the coding of the game. They pull the game files and then they work around that to get the hack back up.”
After hacking for four months, this particular Warzone cheater has only had one account permabanned so far. There’s also the problem of how cheap it is to hack in Call of Duty, with some sites having an entry fee of as little as $10. Despite Activision targeting these cheat websites, it seems that their efforts have done little to crush the current cheating problem that continues to ruin the game.