Apex Legends dev explains why it’s so hard to catch cheaters

An Apex Legends dev has explained why it’s so difficult to ban certain hackers and how advanced cheats avoid getting detected.

The competitive nature of Apex Legends means that a lot of players are desperate to win every game they queue up for.

To maximize their chances of success, a lot of the community spend hours in the Firing Range refining their skills, but others prefer to take shortcuts and use third-party software.

These cheats give hackers access to aimbots that make it easy to rack up kills and wipe out entire squads. While the automated system detects a lot of these cheaters, some of them go under the radar and somehow avoid punishment.

Well, an Apex Legends dev has taken the time to explain why certain hackers are so hard to catch.

Respawn Entertainment

Apex Legends’ anti-cheat automatically detects and bans tens of thousands of hackers every week.

Apex Legends dev reveals how advanced cheats avoid bans

Taking to Twitter on February 21, Security Analyst at Respawn Conor ‘Hideouts’ Ford responded to a player asking about Apex’s anti-cheat system and why certain hackers can continue playing for long periods of time without being detected.

The dev revealed that “aimbots can adjust to only hit a handful [of shots] then miss… or only hit body shots”, making them appear like a normal competitor and therefore, dodging the automated anti-cheat.

Interestingly, Hideouts shares that “wallhacks and UAV” cheats are often more difficult to detect than aimbots, this is likely because these cheaters receive fewer reports as it’s less obvious to see from a spectate screen.

Overall, this means Respawn’s war against cheaters is an “ongoing battle”, with both sides looking to stay one step ahead.

While the community has been extremely critical of Apex’s automated detection, Hideouts shared that “tens of thousands of bad actors” are banned weekly.

So, it’s clear the anti-cheat is dealing with the majority of hackers, it’s just the incredibly advanced software that can bypass the current system.