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Escape From Tarkov’s investigation into the amount of cheating claims that 60% of matches, if not more, contain cheaters. At the moment, almost all Escape From Tarkov players have encountered cheaters in the game. It could be an obvious cheater, flying through the air or invulnerable to attacks, or it could only be a suspicion. One player got fed up and decided to find out how widespread cheating is.
Before discussing the results of the investigation, it should be clarified that in the game Escape From Tarkov there are several ways to deal with cheating. Developer Battlestate Games claims to ban thousands of cheaters every day. In addition, even if players encounter cheaters in Escape From Tarkov, this does not mean that the system is not tracking them. Punishment usually does not occur all at once.
Youtuber g0at – Escape from Tarkov player, decided to evaluate the problem on his own. Obviously, he is not the developer of Escape From Tarkov and does not have administrative access to tools that could help him track down cheaters. Instead, he decided to use cheat tools himself, which showed the enemy’s location through walls, to try and hunt down other cheaters. It may seem counterintuitive, but he has been remarkably successful using what g0at called “Wiggle”. He would walk up to suspected cheaters, wiggle his character, and the cheaters very often wiggled in response.
Using this method and general observations, g0at claims that out of 125 raids, he encountered “obvious” cheaters in about 60%. When he says “obviously” he doesn’t mean cheaters that the typical gamer would immediately recognize. He says he has never encountered speedhackers, invulnerable or flying, and aimbots/range hacks were very rare. In other words, almost all the cheaters that g0at came across were using simpler cheats to see players through walls, and they could only be recognized by communicating via wiggle or general observation.
60% of over 125 matches is not even what is most shocking about g0at’s findings, as surprising as that may be. The fact is that g0at’s method of finding cheaters was by no means ideal. He might not notice cheaters in all his games. 60% is just what g0at “confirmed”, but the true number could be much higher.
Developer Escape From Tarkov issued a statement following the release of g0at’s video. Battlestate Games COO Nikita Buyanov confirmed that the studio is banning cheaters on a daily basis, working with partners from BattlEye Anti-Cheat to improve its capabilities, working on internal anti-cheat systems and making other efforts. However, restoring trust after this video and the general dissatisfaction with cheating in the game will not be easy.
