Why DBD’s Cheating Problem is So Severe (And What You Can Actually Do About It)
Hey Behaviour Team,
I wanted to give some in-depth but constructive feedback about the current state of cheating in Dead by Daylight.
As many players have noticed (and experienced firsthand), DBD is suffering from some of the most extreme forms of cheating seen in multiplayer gaming. We’re not just talking about basic things like wallhacks or aimbots. We’re seeing cheaters:
- Instantly teleport across the map
- Instantly pick themselves up from dying state
- Give themselves infinite health states
- End the match at will
- Crash other players' games
- Spoof their Steam IDs to impersonate other players
- Make gens pop instantly
- Instantly unhook people from anywhere
- Appear as if they have disconnected and are a bot
These aren’t just minor anti-cheat bypasses. These are full client-side control exploits. They are manipulating fundamental game state and logic.
Why This Is Happening (Technical Overview)
The root issue isn’t just Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) being weak. It’s deeper than that:
Dead by Daylight relies heavily on client-side authority for critical game state.
In simpler terms:
Your servers trust the player’s game client to tell them what is happening.
Examples of this bad trust model include:
- The killer or survivor client tells the server where they are located, without strong server-side validation.
- The client tells the server when they should pick themselves up or heal.
- The client says “this generator is done now” and the server just accepts it.
- Even player identity (like Steam ID) appears to be poorly validated, since we’re seeing spoofing.
This is why cheaters can do such wild things. No anti-cheat software can stop this level of abuse because the core game architecture makes it possible.
What Needs to Change (Concrete Fixes)
You’re likely aware of this internally, but the hard truth is:
If DBD doesn’t move critical game logic and state validation to the server, you will never stop this level of cheating.
Here’s what that means in practice:
- Move game authority server-side
Examples:- Server should decide where players are, not trust client position updates.
- Server should validate all state changes like healing, unhooks, gens, damage, etc.
- No more trusting the client to say “I picked myself up” or “I finished this gen.”
- Strong server-side sanity checks on player actions
- Reject impossible sequences like instant teleports, instant heals, or fake unhooks.
- Rate-limit actions like fast interactions or movement that exceeds speed thresholds.
- Player identity and match integrity checks
- Server should independently verify Steam IDs and any other player identifiers.
- No more client-side control over identity. This will stop impersonation cheats.
- Kill switch for known cheat behaviors
- Even while working on architecture fixes, you could add temporary server-side logic that auto-flags or cancels impossible actions (like map-wide teleports or sudden gen pops).
- Better detection for match tampering and crashes
- Monitor and investigate why matches end abruptly. Add safeguards to prevent clients from being able to trigger forced disconnects or crashes on others.
Look at Other Games with Similar Histories
Games like Rust, Escape from Tarkov, ARK, and even PUBG started with high levels of client trust and suffered the same types of extreme cheats.
What finally fixed them?
They did the hard thing:
Shifted game logic to be server authoritative.
Yes, it’s a big engineering project. Yes, it will take time. But it’s the only path to meaningful, long-term cheat prevention.
Final Thought (From a Place of Care)
DBD is a great game with a passionate community.
We want to keep playing it.
But right now, cheaters aren’t just breaking rules… they’re breaking the entire game.
Some nights it’s literally impossible to get a single fair match.
Please, for the long-term health of DBD:
Prioritize moving core game logic server-side.
It’s the only real fix.
Thanks for reading.
Comments
-
Cheating is absolutely out of control right now. I play both sides and while I do get some cheating killers, probably because I play solo and thus not very high MMR (mostly speed bots), the cheating survivors are absolutely rampant in comparison. Sometimes they aren't even subtle and they are still gaslighting you… So yeh, don't ever interact with these ppl, I bet they thrive on it. Just report, send in recording and move on.
I bet BHVR is so swamped in reports right now, (at least I hope that is the reason, because if it isnt, it means that BHVR just doesn't care) that I personally still see steam profiles that I monitor, hacking after multiple months of me reporting them with blatant video evidence. Like they literally still get hackusation comments daily on their profile… Because of this cheaters are absolutely fearless (obviously, since they do it on steam accounts now and not get banned somehow) and often even cheat in swf… They just don't care anymore. It rly is ruining the game for me.
I am also saying this (complaining) from a place of care. I rly want my favo game to be in a healthy state. But right now I just don't feel like BHVR is doing enough to combat it. Especially because killer Q time is so miserable as is, to then get a cheater in your lobby is absolutely infuriating. I sometimes get them multiple matches in a row, as if they are inserting into my lobby, probably on cloudID, cause I alrdy tried changing platforms to dodge them.
Edit :
Update 1: 4th match of the day. Blatant as hell, crouch animation speeding towards the horizon and then "cry more" in endchat… wth is wrong with these ppl, this is a mental illness right? For the life of me I cannot understand what they gain from this, unless its a mental illness…
Update 2: 5th match of the day. Someone instantly escapes before the camera ends panning at the start of the match, so everyone backs out to lobby automatically. No, it wasn't a DC, it was an actual escape.
Post edited by Munky on6 -
Absolutely agree, that’s the correct approach for any secure online game.
The sad truth is: Dead by Daylight does not fully follow this client/server pattern, and that’s exactly why cheating is so rampant.
In DBD’s current architecture, the client has too much control over game-critical actions; things like player position, healing, generator completion, and even certain identity information are trusted or partially trusted by the server instead of being fully validated or controlled server-side.
That’s how cheaters are able to:
- Instantly teleport
- Complete gens instantly
- Pick themselves up from dying state
- End matches at will
No anti-cheat in the world can fix that, because the fundamental security model is broken.
The server should always be the authority; like you said, the client should just send inputs (“I pressed this button,” “I’m trying to heal”) and the server should decide if that’s valid and update the game state accordingly.
Until Behaviour overhauls the netcode to make the server the source of truth, this level of cheating will never go away.
6 -
Their servers don't do what I call "sanity checks" and things like flag impossible speeds etc.
5 -
While it’s true that the "easy" solution to cheating is to offload everything to the server, we need to consider a more practical and realistic approach. Fully server-authoritative games are extremely resource-intensive. Doing this would mean:
- Significantly higher CPU usage per server instance
- A much larger server fleet to handle the increased computational demand
This would likely triple (or more) Behavior's monthly AWS bill—or whatever infrastructure provider they use. And that’s not even factoring in the substantial development and labor costs associated with completely overhauling the game’s core architecture.
That said, there are still some clear wins they could implement without needing to redesign their entire server model. Take spoofing Steam IDs, for example. This vulnerability exists purely because their backend code is crap from authentication & authorization perspective—let’s not sugarcoat it. This is a basic security flaw that an entry-level developer could resolve, and fixing it would NOT require moving to a fully server-hosted model.
Now, when it comes to player state data—like location, health, and similar vectors—it’s admittedly much harder to secure without a server-authoritative structure. The unfortunate truth is that they're unlikely to build a cheat detection system sophisticated enough to consistently catch manipulation of these values without false positives. However, they could implement a more intelligent warning and flagging system. Even if it’s not perfect, it would allow for faster manual review and action when players are reported.-3 -
Oh, too hard? Might cost a little? Nah scrap it, facing cheaters every 1 in 8 games is fine.
0 -
The cheating problem comes in waves and a new one just hit, reported 2 cheaters this week.
But since this week I have not seen a cheater since Winter veil.Some nights it’s literally impossible to get a single fair match.
Now this sounds unlikely, have you reported all of them?
-6 -
This simply isn’t true and highlights a core issue in the gaming industry: a widespread lack of expertise in security architecture.
Many developers still operate under outdated assumptions from an era when bandwidth, cloud computing, and networking techniques were far less advanced.Today, modern solutions like lag compensation, rollback networking, delta compression, and scalable cloud infrastructure allow games to maintain both strong server-side authority and excellent performance.
Some of the most cheat-resistant games, Fortnite, Valorant, Apex Legends, prove that performance and security are not mutually exclusive. It’s not a technical impossibility; it’s a question of priorities and investment.
In the case of Dead by Daylight, it’s likely the developers have weighed the cost of overhauling their security architecture against the revenue from releasing a new killer or survivor, and decided that short-term profit takes precedence.
Fixing the underlying issues may not immediately boost sales; but ignoring them damages long-term player trust and game integrity.0 -
sending video reports about cheaters doesnt even help, I never get answer about my reports
5 -
I've recorded several videos of cheaters myself just today. And I only just started playing after getting home for the 4th of July cook out. The last one, a Nea turned herself invisible to unhook and another was using speed hacks.
Edit, I played another one where a Steve let me hook them, then proceeded to teleport away and use speed hacks to prevent the next hook. They are not even being subtle about it.Post edited by HuskyDogLover on3 -
There's a lot of cheating. I play SoloQ and I'm constantly getting paired with Survs who are outright cheating, but really the Killer would have no clear idea. A lot of teleporting and A LOT of cheating Survs who heal me when they aren't even near me, but I can see that they're healing me because of the hud. On the other side, I notice a lot of sketchy stuff with Killers and they'll often use perks to cover it up, but lots of Killers are hacking Surv Auras.
They usually always deny in the end chat. Like dude, I got healed magically when I was at one gate and you were at the other, yet I watched the hud and you had the healing icon around yours and it healed me in 2 seconds lmao
2 -
I'm not disagreeing with your assessment, but what if the way the game was coded back in 2016 hampers or even outright precludes such improvements?
0 -
This is a problem in a lot of games, (like the examples I gave in the opening post) and those games solved the problem by addressing their tech debt and shifting to a server authoritative security model.
Right now, Behaviour seems to be choosing short-term content releases over long-term infrastructure fixes. That’s a business decision, not a technical impossibility.
1 -
Even if a truly effective server-side anti-cheat were implemented… which frankly feels about as likely as winning the lottery…
I suspect the outcome would mirror what we've seen with the DC and AFK systems: a flood of complaints from players claiming false bans, simply because the number of subtle cheaters is likely far higher than most assume.At this point, cheating feels almost woven into the DNA of DBD → like rust in an old machine. You can repaint the surface, but the core issue remains. That’s not meant to sound cynical for its own sake, but rather to reflect the reality many of us see match after match.
0 -
Both could be true at the same time too.
I'm thinking like most things we'd love to see in DBD it would require recoding the game from scratch. And they have said many times they have no plans to do that, sadly.
0 -
This does not require “recoding the game from scratch.”
What’s needed is a refactor of how the game handles authority and state synchronization. Instead of the client sending updates from the client about state changes, the client should only send basic input data; essentially, button presses and player intent.
The server would maintain a separate, headless game state that acts as the source of truth. This server-side state would handle only game logic, and the clients would be corrected or updated based on it as needed. This is how most cheat-resistant games operate today.
A shift like this wouldn’t just improve security; it would also unlock new features like match replays, since the entire game could be reconstructed from the server’s event log. A simple, lightweight solution like SQLite could easily store the necessary data.
For example, PUBG implemented this approach, allowing full match replays by tracking every player’s actions and the evolving game state; without needing to record video, just raw data.
It’s definitely a significant engineering task, but it’s absolutely doable; and it would future-proof the game while finally addressing the cheating problem at its root.
1 -
never said it was impossible. Just impractical from a business perspective that’s already made countless wrong design choices when it comes to security. At this point the cost of implementing what we all want/deserve is very impractical.
1 -
Hire me. Give me a few months alone in a room with access to the Perforce and I'll do it. 🤷♂️
I'm not cheap. I run my own platform so I'd want fair compensation to make it worth not releasing new features in my own product, but I'd get it done and cheaters mostly wouldn't be a thing anymore.
They would still be able to do things like aim bot with huntress hatchets and maybe always hitting great skill checks, but no more teleporting around the map.Post edited by HuskyDogLover on2 -
This is gonna sound really dour, but as much as I think they should effectively find ways of improving the game on a technical level, the fact that we have to send video evidence to even get them to look into these problems shows how lacking any sort of authority on these issues is. At this point, I think it'd be easier for them to make a brand new game.
0 -
Killer cheats are just as prevalent, they're just generally harder to detect, because they don't make it obvious. Tons of killers are wallhacking and try to play it off as just aura reading perks. But I catch them frequently because I hide in ways that would be impossible for them to detect me even with their aura perks and add-ons. Funnily enough, several of these killers that I report have actions taken against them by BHVR, which verifies that my judgment is accurate.
-3 -
BHVR uses epic anti cheat. They can't fix it because it's not their software.
Dunno how yall are getting so many cheaters. I see an identifiable one maybe once every few weeks.
0 -
Like so many things in DBD, what anyone sees depends mightily on time of day and especially what region.
Apparently cheating is more preventant nearer Asia and around Russia than it is in the other places.
1 -
Oh. I didn't think of that. That's actually congruent with my experience in Dota.
2 -
Give me console only queue by default and that'd fix it, thank you (it probably won't) lol
1 -
Where is Joey Greco when you need him?
0 -
I'd like that too, but for this it wouldn't help because the cheaters can inject themselves into any lobby, CrossPlay on or not.
0 -
Yeah I didn't think of that, well that sucks
1 -
If you play on the middle europe server you play with a lot of russians and have to admit I don't see cheaters that often.
Most cheat claims I have seen even recently as this week in the game myself was totally no proof claims. I myself got called a cheater and reported because I could see the killer through a wall. The kicker is that I had Object of Obsession and even if I was not the obsession it still works if killer sees my aura and the killer was a Huntress with Darkness Revealed so of course I am going to see her through the wall when she takes hatches from the locker in the shed while I am on the other door of the shed. Had to crouch few times to her through the walls until she got that I saw her and what I got from that reported and claimed to be a cheater. My own experience in this game that at least 80% cheat claims are not really cheating just people not getting what happens in the match or even caring of really learning.
-1 -
In 450 hours of gameplay, I only encountered a few obvious cheaters. Maybe I'm just extremely lucky, but it seems to me that most multiplayer games have far bigger problems with cheaters.
0 -
Definitely a lot of false claims, but there's also a ton of cheaters that go undetected. I always check the killer's perks and add-ons afterwards to see if what they did was possible. Now, sometimes, they just have an aura perk. Sometimes, they have an aura perk but are still wallhacking because you hide in ways that their perk wouldn't detect, but they're too dumb to conceal it. And sometimes they have no aura perks and are wallhacking. The second two are more obvious to experienced players. The first one is ambiguous.
2 -
I play on Epic and my account is probably black listed or something, because man I literally get suspicious survivors every match. And then I go watch streamers and they get normal players mostly
0 -
As russian member of community, I also very acknowledged about problems of cheaters, because Russian streamers tends to be persecuted much more aggressively, despite being big content creators for their region. The PADLO, Meydix, NightFuryo3o, AbaDead, Mudler constantly suffers from DDOS, but they are cannot speak out loud compared to other content creators on EU and USA side, due to language barrier.
Big english-speaking creators tends to be harassed much less, maybe because cheaters aftaid of being followed and caught, or maybe the issue is that in Russia and post soviet countries it’s easier to distribute cheats, I don’t know, why. But the amount of cheaters here phenomenal. Only my reports was accepted 3-5 times…for last… month? Two?
Cheater can crush servers and increase match making ban timer even if they weren't in match themselves . And this happens kinda frequently. Even not streaming myself, I was persecuted on few matches and game was unplayable basically.
2 -
A quick reminder for the devs, with the recent Walking Dead streaming scandal in mind. For years, players have repeatedly reported that this game has no protection against cheaters and hackers.
3 -
Yea… it would be appreciated if the problem could be taken seriously without the need for public humiliation.
0
