TF2 Anti-Hack Guide

This guide should paint you a pretty good picture about hackers, how they hack, how they eat, sleep and love. Perhaps not the last three...

Please, keep in mind that this guide is still a work in progress! I work on it often! I value your feedback over everything! Please, keep that in mind and enjoy!

"Nothing stokes my ire like a cheater. Deception, duplicity, murder -- these are merely tools in a toolbox one can use to ensure a job done well. But cheating? I cannot even wrap my head around the point of it. Wouldn't you know you had cheated? How on Earth could you maintain crisp certainty of your superiority to all others? And if you're unable to do that, what's the point of anything?"
- The Administrator

As most of you probably already know, hackers are players that use a script or program to enhance their performance in-game. This detailed guide will lead you through:

• VAC
  
• Different types of hacks
  
• How to identify a hacker
  
• How to fight a hacker

I got help from an anonymous TF2 hack developer while writing this, so the information is from a very good source.

VAC is short for Valve Anti Cheat.

"VAC has several versions. For example, Team Fortress 2 uses version NN. VAC is module based, and most clients only see a fraction of all the modules the system has."-TF2Wiki

VAC should detect if you are running any hacks and if you are, it should ban you. Of course, this is how it should work. Do you want to know how well it works? I will tell you. It does not. Most hackers today use hacks that have no problems bypassing VAC. If it worked, I would not have to write this guide in the first place.

Sometimes VAC banned cheaters in huge waves of thousands of accounts. The last TF2 VAC ban wave was in 2016.

There are many different types of hacks, and each of them does something different. This is a (hopefully) complete list of all of them.

• Radar

The radar shows the location of everyone, their team, where the medkits are etc. This is basically like a minimap from other games.

• Aimbot

This is the most commonly used hack. It uses a system that has priorities in killing players. Sources say that for example sometimes it favours closer enemies or snipers above other players. Aimbot will take control over your aim and flick on the enemies head, with some aimbots with the help of Triggerbots firing. This aimbot can detect you wherever you are. This means that you will probably not get lucky when you try to strike it from behind. Again, aimbot is highly customizable.

• Silent Aim

Silent aim hides the snapping caused by aimbots locking onto players on the spectators and cheaters POV. Silent aim makes you flick back after the aimbot made you flick on target. Unfortunately, silent aim still works for projectile and melee weapons.

"Hitscan Silent Aim can be spotted if the player is flicking for 1 tick and "returns" to the position their cursor was before."-TF2Wiki

• Trigger Bot

Triggerbots usually complete offensive actions for you. There are a lot of different types of Trigger Bots: Auto-Backstab, Auto-Detonate, Auto-Airblast, Auto-Uber or just the original Triggerbot that shoots if there is an enemy under your crosshair. You can see Trigger Bots used on classes that require precision like a scout, sniper or heavy.

"Triggerbots automatically perform an action and are harder to spot."-TF2Wiki

• Crit Hacks

This hack causes the player to shoot incredible amounts of crit shots. This means, that for example, you can get 7 "random" crits in a row. Obviously, they only work at servers that have random crits enabled. This hack used to be worse, you could get crits 100% of the time, that was patched. Of course, hackers got around that and they can still increase the number of crits that you get, but recently I have seen some 100% melee crit hackers but that is not confirmed.

"It's possible to "store" random crits by filling up the crit bucket (range 0-1000) and sending crit requests to get crits on-demand as long as you have it filled. Some weapons can take longer to receive crits as they require a bigger bucket."-TF2Wiki

• ESP hacks

ESP stands for Extra Sensory Perception. Thanks to ESP hacks, hackers can see your health, class and uber percentage if you have one. Your model or just a box will render. Most experienced hackers use an ESP. You can see an ESP hack on the thumbnail of this guide.

"ESP is considered anything that gives extra information visually."-TF2Wiki

• Speed hack

Speedhack was somewhat patched but it still works, it lets hackers crouch-walk the same speed as if they would be walking normally.

• Spinbot

This hack manipulates your movements to have your model and your hitbox on a different place, for example, the model might be facing towards you but really, they are looking to the right. Spinbotting is often used to fool other enemy hackers. It is also known as an Anti-Aim.

"It is also possible for a cheater to abuse bSendPacket that'll fake their yaw. To you, they may be looking forward, but in reality, their hitbox could actually be facing to the left." -TF2Wiki

• Fakelag

This hack produces fake lag, so the hackers enemies see him lagging out but on his POV, everything is fine. This is also used against other hackers to counter aimbot.

"Abuses bSendPacket so the server doesn't update your position for a maximum of ~24 ticks"-TF2Wiki

• No recoil

As we all know, there is no real recoil in TF2, not even when shooting, for example, the minigun, still, this hack removes the recoil when a weapon is shot or when you receive damage from an enemy. This can help the aimbot.

• No Projectile Innacuracy

Similar to patched No Spread, this makes weapons such as the beggar's bazooka or the huntsman shoot straight.

• Anti-backstab

this is a hack that protects the hacker from getting backstabbed, it will rotate him to face towards you if you try to backstab him. There are of course more silent versions of this. This will make it almost impossible to backstab the hacker.

• Name changing

This hack changes the hackers name to avoid getting kicked. They will usually change their name to another player on the server. This causes the wrong players to get vote kicked often.

• Flooding

This hack causes the hacker to spam set messages in the server chat, usually either vulgar messages or a sea of "nothing", making team communication close to impossible. Often, when someone tries to speak they flood the chat with spacebars.

• Killsay

This hack makes the player send a message if he kills an enemy, usually insulting the enemy player. This is used a lot by bots.

Here, I have every hack that I mentioned earlier with a description of how to find out if someone is using him. Remember that if he is using one hack, he is likely to be using more of them.

Something very important to note is that most clients let you know if someone is spectating you. They may become wearier or turn their hacks of completely once you start spectating them.

Ways that different hacks can look:

• Generaly

If the player suddenly stops in-game (moving, looking around, chatting etc.) it can be a hint towards him changing his hack settings, just remember that he could do doing many more things, like texting on steam overlay. Try to spot any changes in his gameplay after he does this.
Hackers can also turn as fast as they want to while congaing or doing any other taunt, or they can stand completely still while congaing etc.

• Aimbot

A giveaway of if a sniper hacker is using aimbot is usually when they make a flick that stops exactly on the head. Aimbots are customizable so you can choose which part of the hitbox you want it to aim for. Another way of telling if someone is using aimbot is when the suspect is aiming on someone and he suddenly flicks on someone totally different and shoots. This is caused by the aimbot preferences taking over. Unfortunately, most clients have the option to disable the flicking and make the aimbot just lock onto the player.

• Silent Aim

Silent aim has been recently patched so if you try and use it now it will look like this: The cursor will flick towards a head for a tick or two (TF2 uses ticks instead of frames) take a shot and snapback. It can be hard to spot if there is a lot of ♥♥♥♥ happening.

• Trigger Bot

A good indicator is when someone shoots an invisible spy, but many experienced hackers have an option enabled that stops the triggerbot from shooting them.

• Crit Hacks

This is pretty obvious if someone keeps getting crits way too often, there is a chance that he is using crit hacks. What a lot of "legit" hackers like to do is only use crit hacks on melee only, so if a player that you suspect of hacking gets a melee crit every time he is probably hacking.

Please keep in mind weapon that some weapons like the Frontier Justice guarantee crits. Please check the persons weapon, before you start accusing them of hacking!

• ESP hacks

You can expect a person to have ESP hacks if he looks through walls, shoots on invisible spies or just seems to know where everyone is coming from, or if they are looking on invisible spies.

• Speed hack

The suspect is crouching but still moving in run speed.

• Spinbot

This can be spotted if you obviously shoot him in his model but he does not take damage, indicating that his hitbox is elsewhere.
Shooting you while they are looking elsewhere.

Remember that there is a thing called lag!

• Fakelag

The movement of the suspect is very consistent, they teleport an equal distance at a time.

• No recoil

This one is generally hard to detect since it only shows up on the player screen.

• No Projectile Innacuracy

Shooting weapons like the beggars with no or close to no inaccuracy.

• Anti-backstab

The player instantly turns around when you try to backstab him.

• Name changing

If there are two people with the same username, it can be an indicator of name changing.

• Flooding

Way too obvious. Just spamming messages.

• Killsay

If a player kills you and instantly sends an insulting message, this can mean that he is using killsay. If the message contains your class, team or name it probably is a killsay.

Remember that even legit players can use keybinds!

Other reasons to suspect someone:

• Steam Profile

If the person that you suspect of hacking has a profile with no profile picture, private profile, few hours on TF2 or low level, this indicates that it is a new account and that they might be hacking.

• Ask your team, what they think.

More brains come up with more ♥♥♥♥. if you are not sure, you should totally ask your team.

• F2P hats

I don't have anything against F2P players but generally, if someone has a gibus and pyrovision goggles and has godly skills and aim... That is just off...

There are various tricks with which you can try to beat a hacker. If the hacker knows how to use his hacks, it can sure be a tough job, still, it is possible.

Get them banned:

No, Valve employees do not go through the reports. However, you can still try some of these tricks on tournaments etc and then contact the organizers.

• Report with F7

This is really the least that you can do, but if someone is obviously hacking reporting him will do no harm.

• Make him type

You really should do this if someone is trying to be a "legit" hacker. If he is hacking obviously, just reporting him is enough. If you make a hacker type and then run in front of him, most hacks will still work (aimbot, triggerbot etc.) so you have easy proof that he is not controlling his computer fully. Unfortunately, cheats can have a key bound to enable them or disable them.

• Make him slip up

If you know that someone is hacking, but it is not obvious because he is hiding it and you want to prove it, you can tease them someway and make him slip up and reveal his hacks, then report him. This will not work with most experienced "legit" hackers since they tend to be more wary.

Tricks:

• Be close to a building

Buildings, especially sentries are generally a tough spot for hackers. It really depends how the aimbot is set up, but generally they will focus the players instead of the buildings and they tend to have issues with taking out buildings. This makes for example mini-sentries extremely effective against them. You can also hide behind dispensers to avoid some ESP hacks.

• Disguise as a class with a different hitbox

This some aimbots into thinking, that your head is on a different place then it really is. It will shoot the disguise head and not your head, often resulting into the aimbot hitting you into the chest, as we can see on the right. The aimbot shoots where it thinks you have your head but, really, your chest is there. Unfortunately, a lot of clients have an updated version that this trick does not work on.

"Disguises do not change your actual hitbox sizes, shapes, or positions. Using certain disguises can therefore reduce the risk of Headshot."-TF2Wiki

• Avoid the hackers sightlines

If the hacker is a sniper, you sometimes can avoid his sightlines and then take him by surprise from behind. Some hackers will not aimbot you if you come from behind.

Useful weapons:

Most items that reduce bullet resistance can generaly be efficent against hackers.

• Vaccinator

There is a reason why there is a VAC in VACcinator. This is the most useful weapon against hackers since most hackers use bullet based weapons and that extra overheal and resistance can really challenge a hacker.

• Battalion's Backup

If you pop the backup, you do not get any crits, which is incredibly effective against headshotting hackers. While you pop it, you can rush the hacker and take it out.

• Gunslinger

As I said earlier, hackers tend to have problems with taking out players and buildings at the same time, so overwhelming him with rebuilding mini-sentries can be effective.

• Fists of Steel

With these steel champs, you get -40% ranged damage, which means that for example from a quickscope headshot you will get only 90 damage.

• Dalokhs Bar

This is a generally good item against snipers, but you will survive 3 headshot quickscopes!

Fun fact: If a you get a quickscoped headshot, while you have the Fists of Steel equipped, while you are ubered by a Vaccinator medic with bullet resistance and a Battalion's Backup soldier pops nearby, the headshot will give you only 7.5 damage!

I have put my everything in this guide and I hope that it will help you fight hackers the next tine you encounter them! Please remember to follow me so you know the next time I release a guide, as you can see below!

Also, please check these out!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1944467501

Have a good one!

[Edioss[UA]]

Are anti-tryhard and anti-pub guides a thing?

[Adams]

Thanks for the kind words guys 🤪

[『M.P. Firebrand』]

thank you so much for this guide my dude. very useful.

[<b></b>]

Update the guide, bots can no longer name change

[mic]

Good

[Orange Gibus The Gae Executioner]

You should update the info on this guide

[NanoPi]

@mostraco
damage is taken server-side, if an attack connects with the target's hitbox. the target could have manipulated their hitbox to avoid taking damage.

[Kangaro fight]

is there any sort of damage resistance hack? I have noticed some players in certain server which rarely bans hackers, which are very hard to kill, and I really suspect they have some sort of thing that makes them receive less damage. I fought against another heavy, using the same gun, I had 350 healt, I started to shoot first, I think I didnt received any damage from anyone else, and he still killed me, no crits of course, and he survived with 5 health. there was no medic on their team, even if he had the chocolate, I shot him with like 5 or more bullets than him, I mean, the only explanation would be lag, but the situaon was very clear.

[SuspiciouspegasusTTV]

This needs updating as part of the Bot crisis

[Shying]

see if you can add new parts such as new types of bots including the max bots (maxamillianmus bots for short)