Explaining "Cheats" Master Thread

[ZACH VADR]

Cheating is always a hot topic in this game. People are always accusing other players of cheating and being accused themselves but there really aren’t many answers out there, just a lot of speculation. I used to think there were a ton of cheats but over the years I’ve managed to figure whats really behind those scores and how its done. It turns out that most of the things that I thought were cheats weren’t cheats at all, just people figuring out ways to play the game that I hadn’t yet realized. Now I’m on the other side of it and always being accused of cheating even though I’m playing 100% clean. So lets use this thread as a home base for any and all questions/explanations of “cheats” so that everyone can have a better understanding of the things they see. I’ll get it started by breaking a few of the common cheating complaints i often see.

TAGS - Popular complaints are “A player stole a bunch of my tags when they were nowhere near the object” or “A player got a suspiciously high score on a tag”. These are NOT cheats. What you are seeing are players using drift to connect their stunts. A tag isn’t complete until you have completed your stunt, so if you are drifting in between objects you can connect multiple tags and get a huge score plus a ton a of tags at once. Example: The biggest tag scores are when you hit rings. So say you would normally just jump up a ramp and hit a ring to tag it; instead start on top of a different object then begin drifting off of it. Don’t break your drift, just keeping drifting toward the ramp/ring that you want to tag. Try to gently graze as many objects as you can on your way (again without breaking your drift!), then drift up the ramp to hit the ring as you normally would. If you landed safely you will now have connected all of the objects you touched with one big score that you would never be able to achieve without connecting your stunts! You can also do this by landing into a drift after a stunt. If you land clean on your front axel and start drifting your score will continue and you can connect another big stunt. It all takes a lot of practice but keep at it and you will get the hang of it. This is how you hit those big 50,000 point tags with like 12 objects at once. TIP: different cars have better drift abilities.

STUNTS - People always see players getting stunt scores in the 200,000 range and think it has to be cheating. But just like the tag scores this is NOT cheating, just knowing which car to use, how to play the course and using drift to connect your stunts. The most important thing to getting high stunt scores is using the right route. You want a route that lets you get big air stunts while hitting one or multiple rings as many times as you can. Rings = quick points. Doing this alone will get you a big score, but if on top of that you also drift in between your stunts to connect your scores you will get even more points and boost your scores even higher. If you need to find a good route then just find a player who is putting up high scores, follow them, watch what they do and try to replicate it. You will be putting up new high scores in no time. Fast mid-heavy weight cars are usually best for this.

FIND THE RING - A lot of you already know this but steam players get a different ring in this event from players playing on other platforms. So if you see someone win by hitting a different ring then you have its not cheating. Just an issue with platforms.

RACES - You know when you finish a race in first but then a second later after you already crossed the finish line another player pops up ahead of you with a faster score? Or you see another player take off slightly before you? These are not cheats. Its differences in the connection speed between different platforms. The other player maybe on a slight 1-2 second delay so while you may physically be ahead of them, if they finish the race in a quicker time than you then they will still be awarded the win. Hope this clears that one up.

KING OF THE CROWN - No cheats here, just crafty hiding places. If you are driving through the green arrow but you can’t seem to find the player or see them anywhere then that usually means they are either hiding on top of something, under something or are scaling up a wall (yes you can do this, most walls have spots with little curbs that you can drive up and onto the wall.) Certain platforms also have spots on the edge of the map that will launch you super high into the sky, so players sometimes use those to “disappear”.

SPEED CHEATS - There IS a super nitro cheat/glitch out there but it VERY rare and only exists on one (now discontinued) platform. There are only maybe 10 or less people who actually know about the glitch and have the ability to use it, but almost none of them ever use it and it is VERY obvious when you see it. Seriously there will be no question when you see someone using it. It makes cars go insanely fast, probably twice as fast as a normal car. Example: There is a race in snow level where the fastest time you can possible finish is about 41 seconds. But I’ve seen a tank with super nitro cheat finish it in about 33 seconds. While a good player can get around 220K in a stunt event, using nitro they can hit up toward 300K. So if you’ve seen it in person then there will certainly be no doubt that they were using it. But again chances are you will almost never see this.

COLORED NAMES/LONG NAMES - Nope not hackers or anything. Just using standard html color code in your name. Certain platforms also have the ability to make your name longer than the max amount of characters. There is a thread about how to do this in the forums here.

RAPID FIRE TANK - Not exactly a cheat, but it IS exploiting a glitch in the game on certain platforms that lets you fire your tank with unlimited quickness. Players using this aren’t usually master hackers or anything, just annoying trolls who stumbled upon the glitch.

LEVEL 99 PLAYERS (in regular levels) - Yea… obviously a hack lol. Actually other than money hacks its the one actual hack I have ever heard about in this game. As far as I know its only on android and simply maxes out your level and money. There is no performance enhancement though.

TANK BATTLES - This is by far the glitchiest area of the game so most of the suspicious things you will see here are just an issue with the game glitching out. Here are the most common: You keep shooting a player but its not doing anything to them: Not a cheat, just a difference in connection speeds. You are seeing the player slightly delayed so when it looks like you are shooting them its not actually landing. Try shooting slightly ahead of where they are. A player scoring a bunch of points at once: Not a cheat, usually a delayed score tally or a player getting a ton of bonus points for things like multi-kill, air shot, long distance shot, etc all in one shot. A player keeps ending the game before its over with a really high score: Not a cheat. The game automatically ends when a player hit 1,500 point. Your points don’t all show up before the game ends: Just a delay in the game that doesn’t tally up your score in time. It sucks but not much you can do about it.

BLANK NAMES - Not a cheat. Some platforms let you set your name blank. Its annoying as hell though in tank battles.


So hopefully this helps some of you guys out as far as understanding what you are seeing and trying to replicate it! Please feel free to add to the list and ask about anything else you’re trying to figure out is a cheat or not. And once again the best advice I can give is when you think you see someone cheating just follow them around, see what they do then try to copy it yourself. You will usually find out some cool tricks you didn’t know about. And instead of calling players cheaters just ask them what they are doing. They will usually show you if you are nice :)

[†PÌÍG†]

There are other hacks/cheats out there. Some hacks, used in unison with other hacks/glitches can create something that you want no part of.

There is a tank hack that uses tank arena code for regular levels. It uses the camera detach function on mac to drive through the air. It uses super speed also. It uses tank arena code to be able to shoot all platforms, rather than only being able to shoot certain ones. It also has big shot from big tank in tank arena, auto aim hack, and 0 damage armor. it hangs upsidedown over the top of you, shooting you. If not over the top of you, the auto aim will get you if no obstructions in the way. This tank has rapid as well, some platforms are affected by the rapid fire, where as others only recieve a single shot. I can prove this as well

[†PÌÍG†]

The people that speculate, are the people without answers. Rapid fire, and super speed still exist In the game. It's only rare to known players. I see once or twice a week, people using super speed. They are reluctant to use it when known players are around. Go in was a new player, you will see it more often than you think.

Anyhow, nice thread dude! Great idea..

[ZACH VADR]

Originally posted by †PÌÍG†:

There is a tank hack that uses tank arena code for regular levels. It uses the camera detach function on mac to drive through the air. It uses super speed also. It uses tank arena code to be able to shoot all platforms, rather than only being able to shoot certain ones. It also has big shot from big tank in tank arena, auto aim hack, and 0 damage armor. it hangs upsidedown over the top of you, shooting you. If not over the top of you, the auto aim will get you if no obstructions in the way. This tank has rapid as well, some platforms are affected by the rapid fire, where as others only recieve a single shot. I can prove this as well

Most of this is correct but there are still some holes in it. I believe all of these things are real, but they can not be used in the same version. There are 2 versions you can play on mac; the now discontinued Mac App store version and the Steam version. Neither version has the ability to edit code, Mac can't do this and has no way to access the edit window. Thats a PC thing. Also the Mac App version does not include tank battles. So anything that happens in the Tank Arena or with arena code can not be on the Mac App version. Only the steam version has Tank Battles for Mac. However, nitro speed, rapid fire and freezing in the air are glitches that are only on the Mac App and not accessable on the Steam version for Mac. So it is not possible for these to be used in the Tank Arena or in combination with arena code/any coding in the Mac App version.

I can't speak on the coding because I only have a Mac and have no access to it. But as far as rapid fire, freezing in the air and super nitro, these are all obviously easy to spot and there is no doubting it when you see it. However people who have never actually seen super nitro accuse clean players and non mac app users of using it a lot. So just to be clear this is how you spot a nitro glitch user. First off they have to be a Mac App player, not steam on mac. Mac = max level 30, so level 31s are not Mac App users. Further, fully leveled up Mac App players can not use the nitro glitch, so they must be a level 29 or lower. I.e. level 30 players can not be using nitro glitch. It also will not work if you own the shady dealer car from that level. I.e. Tank in canyons, Jeep in Tropical, Pimp Mobile in Forest and Plow in Snow can NOT access the nitro glitch, even if they arent fully leveled. Also, they will be going INSANELY fast, not just faster than you but unrealistically fast and hitting unacheivable scores. There will be no doubt when you see it.

[†PÌÍG†]

That's all fine. I'm aware of which platforms do what. However, this tank has the characteristics of what you would find from a tank arena tank. The blast of the heavy tank, or blast of random big shot from the tank in regular levels. 1 shot sends you across the map, in random directions. It has "quick fire," which is not the same as rapid fire, but still fires very quickly, to be more specific. That can only be done by tank arena tanks. It has the ability to shoot all platforms. One can only shoot all platforms if playing in the tank arena. For example, I cannot shoot mac players in regular levels. I can shoot them in tank arena though, and vise versa. I didn't give specifics of a level, and there was no doubting what I saw, which is why it has been mentioned. LOL

[leAKlife]

Let's not talk about coin collect and stunt level 1 guys that get -0 score and always win.

[ZACH VADR]

Originally posted by leAKlife | BitSkins.com:

Let's not talk about coin collect and stunt level 1 guys that get -0 score and always win.

Weird. I have seen that before, its a game error but I have never seen anyone awarded a win for it before. Are you sure they are awarded a win when you see it or does it just stop anyone else from being awarded a win?

[leAKlife]

Originally posted by VADR:

Originally posted by leAKlife | BitSkins.com:

Let's not talk about coin collect and stunt level 1 guys that get -0 score and always win.

Weird. I have seen that before, its a game error but I have never seen anyone awarded a win for it before. Are you sure they are awarded a win when you see it or does it just stop anyone else from being awarded a win?

-0 are not awarded, but the coin collectors yes.

[PM†]

dear zach ... i found a very curious way for a tricolor name ... i have a MacOs 10.13.6 ... but it's too complicated to realize so i don't speak in CD2 beacuse i have it, i keep it i'm not sure to, be able to do that one more time ... i can explain how i do that ... see U soon

[ZACH VADR]

PM, thats what i thought :) Good to see you on here, I will message you!

[dsplzion]

Originally posted by ZACH VADR:

Originally posted by †PÌÍG†:

There is a tank hack that uses tank arena code for regular levels. It uses the camera detach function on mac to drive through the air. It uses super speed also. It uses tank arena code to be able to shoot all platforms, rather than only being able to shoot certain ones. It also has big shot from big tank in tank arena, auto aim hack, and 0 damage armor. it hangs upsidedown over the top of you, shooting you. If not over the top of you, the auto aim will get you if no obstructions in the way. This tank has rapid as well, some platforms are affected by the rapid fire, where as others only recieve a single shot. I can prove this as well

Yes, I've seen someone, i think the name was GEARWORX or something similar.. all in rainbow colors like google. Anyway, it was hilarious to watch. every time he shot, the splash damage reached out to the entire map and you would be thrown for miles... you'd be flying miles away and he'd shoot again and you'd get hit again... he did all kinds of crazy cheat stuff flying around and whatnot. I tried shooting him for a while but it did no good. I just sat back and watched... amazed.

[dsplzion]

I think it's safe to say when somebody joins your tank game and has 30,000 points already which stops the game because it limits out at 1500 points, they are probably cheating. And whenever I see this happen, sure enough, the player usually has other cheats and uses them.

[dsplzion]

There is definitely a cheat out there that I call an "Inertial Dampner" It keeps the tanks from moving too quickly so when you shoot them, they will move, but not as much as they should. In other words, if you nail someone right in the sweet spot to where they should go flying, they might only move a little bit. It seems to have an adjustment level too because it works differently on different tanks. It can make them very hard to kill, but not impossible. Just have to pick your shots more carefully. I see it all the time where I start to really give it to someone and they will disappear off the game for a minute or two and then come back with the cheat on.
There is also the one where the tank just starts flying all over the map in different random directions. Not a terribly effective cheat as the users seem to have very little control over where they are going but they can actually skip off the ground and come back up to the playing field sometimes. Very hard to hit them when they are jumping and flying around so quickly but it's really fun to try and very satisfying when you actually score on them.

[Mycroft 33]

This is an interesting discussion, and definitely one that values meritorious discussion. As a long-ish time crash driver, I have personally seen it all, or so I thought until I hit on this thread. I have been out of the loop in the community, not knowing one existed. Now, I'm pretty sure I've just seen most of it, which sounds far less impressive and nice to my ego. I certainly understand the saltiness of losing a round to someone who you juuuuuuust can't seem to beat, and wanting not to ascribe it to a lack of skill, but rather to obscure "hacks" that others must have. I have not seen the ultra fast nitro glitch, I have seen and in many cases used the other glitches people called hacking. I called the fast fire tank hacking, when I was playing the online version as a kid, and I was level 18, and longing for the app which cost an insurmountable one dollar. My paents hated and hate video games, but I have always loved them. I finally got the app store version of Crash drive, and discovered that if I turned the sound effects off, I could spam the fire button and fire super fast. Suddenly it was a bit less of a hack, and my childish raging at people who used it seemed utterly silly. I am fairly certain though that some people who had that glitch hooked their fire button up to a small macro that would click it say a dozen times immediately, it would make sense in their way of thinking.

The mac version had the main game, true, but (if I remember correctly) it lacked the game I really liked, the tank battles. I had been playing tank battles online at agames.com against the bots, and got so they were really easy and boring, plus every third round the game crashed. I really wanted it but had to be content without it. I later on discovered (in the mac app version) a glitch where in a certain small spot in the winter map, you could get under the terrain and it would send you flying sky high. It was only useful in king of the crown events, and hard to pull off without nitro. It became a fun pass-time for me. I later on got my own PC, and managed to get the steam version of it. I leveled up fast, as I knew how to do by then, having had most of my noob moments online and in the mac version. I got to world 4, snow, in somewhat quick fashion, on the order of a few hours. I was sad to see an extra rock right where my favorite glitch had been, but it was clear it was there on purpose.

I was especially ecstatic to beat the shady dealer on the desert world, and unlock the tank battles at last, which were my favorite part of the game. They are where I saw the most hackers, or at least so I thought. I had invented a name for a certain practice that was handy, but annoying. I called it tank juggling. It's where you shoot a tank and they go up into the air, and you shoot them just as they come down. My personal tank of choice has always been the heavy tank, and I have amassed a kill/death ratio of 2.8 on it, something I am not sure is a good ratio or not, but am happy with.

And it is here that I would like to discuss the hacks I have seen over the year or so I have played the steam version. First, there is the super obvious dumb hacker who comes in with a certain point adding software I happen to know about, and adds to themselves some ridiculous number of points that is so wacky, it screams hacking. This is the only hack that I have concrete evidence of. I have run across a huge number of level 99 tanks in my play, and am fairly sure that one or two have some hacks of some sort, although the only evidence I have is circumstantial, and I would LOVE to be proven wrong.

Here is the first one that I dislike and seems to me to be a hack. A level 99 tank, almost always a regular tank, will literally juggle me from across the map with unfailing accuracy, and this seems suspicious to me. From how random crashdrive's firing pattern can be in the small movements that make a world of difference across the map, this many hits at this range seems highly unlikely. But as a result of these guys, I got good at being juggled. I got to where I knew how to control my momentum, and could survive a good long time, hoping to either get an airshot or have someone else shoot them. I think the 99s knew about me and found me annoying, because while they had amazing aim that I could not and still cannot account for from all the way across the map, (I mean one shot can be lucky, but 12-20 shots in a row look quite suspicious) they didnt pose too much of a challenge, and if I stuck with it, I would start beating them again and again. This uncanny valley between the ease of me beating them and the accuracy of their aim still exists, but has dwindled and is dwindling fast as I myself approach level 99. Most of these instances come from when I was in my 30s. I am as of this post level 91. I figured that with m experience, they should be easily able to beat me, but I was beating them, and their aim was still extremely accurate. It was the only advantage they really had, and the disconnect made me think someone was adapting an aimbot to use, but I don't know anymore.

This I no longer think of as a hack, but noob me certainly did. This is shooting between levels. It is very tough, but I know now how to pull it off. Most people fire late to accomplish this. I will always remember the one person who taught this to me, my (at the time) nemesis, someone called Angry Driver. Boy I hated them at one point, until I learned that from them, and stopped being afraid of them, and now I hold Angry Driver more in the "honorable opponent" category, although I still get salty.

This is the one thing that I really find frustrating, and is not a hack, but instead a dishonorable strategy in my view. I am sure you all know that often the tank battles take place over Tropical map, and the map has colliders. Many times a person shot off the map will try to stay there util their combat tag expires and the death counts as a suicide. I see this as avoiding the consequences of being killed, and a generally cowardly move to make. DISCLAIMER: I understand there are differing viewpoints, and I understand that if you do that, it does not make you a coward, this is MERELY my personal opinion, and I hold no grudges against those who consider it a legitamate strategy. I personally find this frustrating, but not a hack.

On the inertial dampener: That would be consistent with some behaviors I have seen from some smasher tanks that ram me with very little run-up distance, and yet send me flying. This is not to be confused with someone who lagged out of the game, and their tank becomes an immovable rock.

My in-game name is Mycroft, and I am almost always found in tank battles as a black heavy tank. If you've seen me, I would love to hear from you, as well as any advice as to how I can improve. I love this game, and would love to get to know this community. I do not expect anyone to agree with my personal opinion, I merely wanted to share it.

[ZACH VADR]

hey, thanks for joining in guys!

Originally posted by dsplzion:

There is definitely a cheat out there that I call an "Inertial Dampner" It keeps the tanks from moving too quickly so when you shoot them, they will move, but not as much as they should.
There is also the one where the tank just starts flying all over the map in different random directions

Yea these are definitely both real cheats. I have been meaning to update this thread. I used to play tank battles level regularly but that was about 2 years ago. Back then I never saw any evidence of hacking. But after hearing so many people talk about auto aim, armor hacks, megablast, steady rapid fire, etc I started looking into it more. I heard a lot more stories from different people and then started playing tank battles again and saw some of it for myself. Also had some help from some much more tech savy folks than I. Long story short, hacking is definitely 100% possible through both PC and Mac steam and also to a lesser extent Android. It's definitely not easy though and there doesn't seem to be many players that are capable of it. But this player or group of players through steam have super tanks that have auto aim, rapid fire in tank battles, super powerful blasts, can shoot through objects, can alter any physics to be able to fly and get super nitro (even more powerful than mac app nitro) and can probably do anything they want. There is also one where players can make their tank heavier; this one seems to be easier to acheive and a bit more widespread. It seems like all these hacks are most effective in tank battles so these guys mainly hang out there and only come to regular levels once in a while to cause havoc. I guess this is how I went so long without seeing any of this, because i have stayed in regular levels for the past couple of years. Apologies if I doubted anyone of you. This stuff is definitely hacking and you will know it when you see it. However, as Mycroft spoke about above, most of the simpler things that we all write off as hacks are actually just platform differences or you are simply playing against a better player. So a good rule of thumb, if you see someone blatantly hacking then yea they are obviously hacking; but if you aren't 100% that a player is hacking then they probably aren't. These hacks are all extremely obvious. Thanks to everyone who has helped me understand this stuff a little better. And since I now know these hackers are all in steam, they are probably reading all this and laughing :) Hi hackers!