http://dbd.game/killswitch
Cheaters in DBD: How to identify/avoid them & what to do
Hello.
Given BHVR's complete and utter silence on the issue of cheaters (I dare to call it ignorance, there's still a sliver of hope that they are doing something behind the scenes and just won't want to talk about it).
I've decided to make this thread, a guide if you will on how to identify cheaters and what to do about them if you come across one in your games.
I will say that this guide will also give special treatment to the concept of 'subtle' cheaters since they are the ones who cause the most damage to the game in the long term. The attention seeking cheaters are annoying but they don't even try to hide what they are doing so it's pretty obvious what to do there.
#1: The Golden Rule : Don't Jump to Conclusions:
There are a lot of perks, addons, killers and other variables that to someone who's new to the game or not as experienced might easily seem like a cheat of some kind. Not every player's going to have encylopedic knowledge of everything in the game, but thankfully we have ways of checking these things via the scoreboard!
Simply put - if you think something suspicious or weird happened in the game use the scoreboard to check and see if there's anything that could explain it. Read all their perks and addons: There's even some really minute things a killer could do to track a survivor who's playing extremely stealthily, like crows for example.
I'd like to cite an example using this video from Otzdarva:
Otzdarva's entire reason for suspecting the survivor of cheating is because he assumed that they used their Sprint Burst and then used it again when he started chasing them, however the likely case is that they simply walked due to the perk 'Fixated'. I don't blame him for being suspicious because he's faced a lot of cheaters semi-recently but this is one of those cases where he jumped to a conclusion based on nothing concrete
Thankfully Otz recognises this and talks about it in the video so I'm not criticising him for it, I'm just using him as an example!
#2: What to look out for/WAYS TO AVOID:
When trying to identify a potential cheater, the best place to start is their perks. Keep an eye out on what perks you can personally identify them as having just from playing against them/observing them. The usual suspects Dead Hard, Iron Will, Quick and Quiet, Pop Goes the Weasel and so on. Knowing what perks are in play can help you rule out things that might explain their suspicious gameplay.
For example - If I've been chasing a survivor and I've seen them use Dead Hard, I know that they have Borrowed Time and I know for a fact that they've got Soul Guard + Unbreakable then I can 100% know that they don't have any perks to heal themselves extremely quickly or that I know they don't have DS
I've faced cheaters who had permanent Quick & Quiet, Calm Spirit and Iron Will despite not having any of these perks equipped.
The point of this is to keep an eye out on what suspicious killers/survivors do in the match. I also have another example for this point, a DBD content creator by the name of Hens333 uploaded this video:
In this video, a particular survivor does things that their perks simply wouldn't allow them to and it's not immediately clear and obvious. These are the things to look out for.
If you're looking for a semi-reliable way to avoid a lot of cheaters, if you look at their steam profile and it's 'not set up' or if it's steam level 0/1 etc then dodge any lobby that contains a player with a profile like that. It's not concrete and many cheaters have ways around it but it'll help, trust me. I could've avoided a few cheaters if I had taken my own advice but I usually don't.
Many cheaters are using fresh accounts for obvious reasons so, keep an eye out for that. Not all new looking/fresh accounts are cheating but almost all cheaters are new/fresh accounts.
You can also play with Crossplay off as a Console player and I believe you can avoid almost all cheaters. I've heard some can get past this and play with console people regardless but if you're playing with crossplay off and you see a globe - that should be a red flag.
#3: Use A Recording Software:
This will likely apply to mostly PC players, I'm not sure how well Console players can record and rewatch their previous matches but generally it's a good idea to have some kind of recording software handy if you're worried about running into cheaters of any kind really.
I'm not advising that you record every single game or anything like that, but you certainly can if you feel like it. Typically I keep a recording software handy and enable it if I feel like something suspicious happened then I'll rewatch the footage later. Streamers and content creators can do this easily since they have VODS and such.
OBS/Shadow Play are pretty good (and free!) options for this, but there's others. Having video proof of blatant cheaters also helps with the report process which will be mentioned shortly, keep that in mind.
#4: The Reporting Process:
This is quite simple, but I'll make a bullet point list of what to do:
- First gather evidence in game; either record the whole match or start recording when you're sure that someone is cheating
- Grab the player's steam profile from either in-game or the scoreboard. Get their SteamID 64 from this site:
- In the Endgame screen, Report them using the ingame report system (It's under the 'exploits' option) and type something in the Endgame chat
- Take a screenshot of the scoreboard,
- Create a report ticket here and select 'Additional Player report information'
- Fill it out and include everything that has been listed above; the scoreboard image, the recording and so on. Maybe clip only the relevant parts of the match and upload them somewhere/upload them directly
- After that, all you can really do is wait.
I don't quite 100% know how the report system works, whether they let you know if action has been taken or not but I've seen cheaters banned because of report tickets so it does work, albeit slowly. I'd call it unviable but it's the only thing as players we can do so, yeah.
#5: What to do mid-match:
If you're a killer and you know for a fact there's a cheater in the lobby, there isn't a whole lot you can really do. The game is basically over at that point, but it's really up to you if you want to just AFK, Try to get the hacker anyway (Some are so bad this can work, it's hilarious) or you can just wait for the gens to be done and open the gate to force the game to end.
If you're a survivor and you have a cheater on your team - ignore them. Just do the gens and try to leave ASAP. Don't prolong the game for any longer than it needs to be. Don't help them if the killer manages to hook them.
Personally speaking I let the killer kill me if there's a cheater in the game since I know the pain but it's entirely your prerogative.
In either case if the cheater is holding the game hostage through one of various ways; you might just have to DC or wait for the cheater to get bored which they often do because let's face it - they thrive on the attention so if you don't give it to them, they'll move on.
Grab their steam profile and keep it somewhere and dodge them if you find them in your lobby again. This is a really stupid thing to have to do but hey - gotta do what you gotta do.
#6: What BHVR really needs to do:
Just one final small section listing some things I think BHVR needs to do:
- Most importantly: Break the silence that you have over this issue, let us know that you actually give a damn that your game is full of cheaters right now and let us know "hey we hear you."
- Either disable DC penalties until the cheating problem is less of an issue than it is currently or give players some kind of 'Forfeit' feature. Cheaters are able to thrive on the fact that players can't just DC when they get up to their attention seeking antics. They also use this to target streamers/content creators
- Get a better Anti-cheat, apparently the one DBD has is outdated and doesn't even really work that well
- Improve the ingame report part of the game
And that brings us to the end. I hope whoever reads this finds some useful information here. I wish you all a good day and hope to see you all in the Fog.