The Ultimate Guide to Cheats in First-Person Shooters: Features, Setup, and Safety

If this is your first time using the software and you don’t understand half the terms, this guide will cover all the basics. We’ll break down each category of features, explain how to set up the system for its first launch, what a spoof is and why you need it, what statuses the software can have, and what to do if you get banned. Everything laid out clearly, no fluff.

The menu of virtually any cheat for shooters is divided into several tabs. The names are more or less the same everywhere, so once you figure it out, you’ll be able to navigate any software.

AIMBOT - Auto-aiming at the enemy

This is the main combat feature. How it works: the software receives data on the enemy’s position, determines the location of their skeleton (model bones), and when you press the assigned key, moves your crosshair to the selected body part.

Aimbots are divided into two types.

Vector aimbot. The classic version. You hold down the button—the crosshair smoothly moves toward the target. You see this movement and control the moment of the shot. The vector aimbot has a wide range of settings:

Smooth (smoothness) — adjusts the aiming speed. A low value results in an instantaneous jerk toward the target, which looks unnatural and obvious. A high value makes the crosshair move smoothly, mimicking human movements.

FOV (Field of View) — the radius around the crosshair within which the aimbot begins to work. A small FOV means you have to almost aim at the enemy yourself before the aimbot locks on. A large FOV can catch a target even at the edge of the screen.

Target selection: head, chest, torso, or limbs. In most shooters, the head deals the most damage, but hits exclusively to the head look suspicious.

Additional settings—aim delay, post-shot delay, target visibility check (so the aim doesn’t lock onto enemies behind walls), and displaying a marker showing where the bot is aiming.

Silent AIM. The crosshair on the screen doesn’t move at all, but if an enemy is within the FOV, the bullets still hit them. Imagine homing missiles—visually, you’re missing, but hits are still registered. Silent AIM has minimal settings: hitbox radius and hitbox size. It looks extremely unnatural on kill cams, so use with caution.

ESP / Wallhack - see through walls

ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) features provide information that a regular player cannot obtain. Essentially, it’s eyes in the back of your head and X-ray vision in one package.

Box ESP - the foundation of any wallhack. It draws a rectangular frame around each enemy’s model. It is visible through all walls and objects on the map. Advanced versions use two colors: one for visible targets, the other for those currently behind cover.

Info overlays—additional information is displayed above each player: current health, weapon in hand, distance to target, threat level, and line of sight. In some games, you can even see an enemy’s K/D ratio to gauge how dangerous they are.

Loot ESP - displays items inside containers, bags, and pockets without requiring you to open them. You can see the contents of a chest even before you approach it. Advanced cheats allow you to filter loot by value—showing only expensive items so you don’t waste time on junk. Some let you change the highlight color for different categories of items.

Tracers—lines extending from your character to each enemy. This feature is a matter of personal preference; for most players, the boxes are sufficient.

ESP is extremely simple to configure: typically, it’s just a set of checkboxes—tick the ones you need and start playing. Fine-tuning is almost unnecessary.

MISC - Additional Features

MISC (Miscellaneous) — a hodgepodge of features that don’t fit into the aim or ESP categories. This is where the most extreme and risky options are hidden.

No Recoil - completely removes or significantly reduces weapon spread when firing. Bullets fly exactly where you aim, without the barrel flinching.

No Sway - removes weapon sway when aiming. The barrel stays rock-solid.

Infinite Stamina (No Stamina) - You can run non-stop; your character doesn’t get tired or slow down.

No Fall Damage - Jump from any height without consequences.

Loot Through Walls - the ability to pick up items through textures without entering the room.

Zero reload modes, thermal vision, and more - depends on the specific mod and game.

Important note: MISC functions often carry a higher risk of getting banned, because the server can detect abnormal behavior (such as no fall damage or infinite sprinting). If you see an unfamiliar function in this tab, first figure out what it does and ask experienced users before enabling it.

Chams - Model Highlighting

Chams is a feature that completely repaints the texture of a player or object in a color of your choice. Imagine all enemies glowing bright red or green through any obstacles—that’s what chams do.

Unlike ESP, which draws frames and text over the screen, chams alters the model’s rendering within the game itself. Visually, this looks cleaner and is easier on the eyes.

Some chams target only players, while others are expanded versions that highlight loot. You can assign different colors to different categories of items: expensive loot in one color, common loot in another.

Chams is considered one of the safest features from a detection standpoint because it operates at the shader level and does not directly interfere with the game’s logic. For beginners, this is a good option to start with—you gain a significant advantage with minimal risk.

Before running any software, you need to prepare the system. Cheats operate at a level that conflicts with Windows’ security mechanisms, so you’ll need to disable a few things.

Antivirus. Any cheat will be detected by antivirus software as a threat—this is normal. Windows Defender, Kaspersky, Avast, and any other antivirus must be disabled or the folder containing the cheat added to the exceptions. Otherwise, it will simply delete the files during extraction.

Windows Defender. Simply disabling it in the settings is sometimes not enough—Defender can re-enable itself. Use utilities like DControl for a reliable disable.

Secure Boot. Some cheats use their own drivers, which won’t run if Secure Boot is enabled. Disable it in BIOS/UEFI.

Core Isolation / Memory Integrity. A Windows feature that blocks the loading of unsigned drivers. To use software that bypasses drivers, you need to turn it off. It’s located in Windows security settings.

Don’t be alarmed by these steps—they’re standard and reversible. After your session ends, you can turn everything back on.

Anti-cheats. Faceit, Vanguard, and other anti-cheat programs can also block cheats from loading; it’s recommended to disable them.

A spoofer is a program that temporarily masks your hardware’s unique identifiers: hard drive serial numbers, network card MAC addresses, motherboard IDs, and other hardware identifiers.

Why you need it. If you get banned, the anti-cheat system can block not only your account but also your hardware itself (HWID ban). After that, you won’t be able to log into the game from any account—the system recognizes your computer by its device identifiers. A spoofers solves this problem.

Two usage scenarios:

Preventive—run the spoofing tool BEFORE you get banned. If a ban is issued, the spoofed identifiers will be blocked, while your actual hardware remains clean. If you reboot your computer, the spoofed IDs are reset, and the real ones remain intact.

After a ban—if you’ve already been HWID-banned, the spoofers replace the blocked identifiers with new ones. After that, you can log in with a new account.

Launch order: first the cheat, then the spoofers, then the game. After exiting the game—reboot, and all identifiers revert to their factory defaults.

Life hack: look for cheats with a built-in spoofing tool—you buy a single subscription and get both the software and hardware protection.

Every mod has a current status that indicates whether it’s safe to use right now. Check the status BEFORE every launch—this isn’t a joke or an option, but a mandatory rule.

Undetected (UD) – the software hasn’t been detected by the anti-cheat. You can safely launch and play. This is the only status under which you should enter the game.

Detected - the software has been detected. You absolutely must not launch it. If you enter the game with a detected cheat, you will be banned immediately or in the next wave. Usually, the developer announces the detection in the news channel.

Risk / Use at your own risk - uncertain status. This happens after a recent update when the software hasn’t been fully tested yet. Or after a detection when a fix has been released but there’s no certainty about its reliability. You can use it, but at your own risk.

Updating / Offline - the software is temporarily unavailable; an update is in progress. This usually happens after a game patch or an anti-cheat update. You wait until the developer releases a new version.

In shooters with strict anti-cheat measures, bans can take several forms.

Account ban—only your gaming account is blocked. This is the mildest option. You can buy or register a new account and keep playing. If you were smart enough to use a spoofing tool, you won’t have any hardware issues.

HWID ban (hardware ban)—the anti-cheat system has blacklisted your hardware identifiers. Now any account you log into from this computer will be blocked. The solution is a spoofing tool with a cleaner to remove traces.

IP ban—a rare occurrence, but it happens. Your IP address is blocked. This can be resolved with a VPN or by changing your IP through your ISP.

What to do after a ban:

First—don’t panic and don’t try to log in with a new account right away. First, figure out what type of ban you received.

Second—if it’s an HWID ban, run a spoofing tool with a cleaner function to clear the tags from the system.

Third—after cleaning and spoofing, test it on a disposable account before logging into anything valuable.

Fourth—figure out why you were banned. Did you use detected software? Did you forget to update after a patch? Were you playing too obviously? Fix the cause, or history will repeat itself.

Start small. Don’t crank all the settings to max right away. Try ESP or chams—get used to the interface and see how the software behaves on your system.

Always check the status. Before every session, visit the developer’s website or Discord/Telegram channel. Two words: “undetected”—and you’re in the game. Any other status—close the launcher.

Don’t skimp on software. Free cheats from forums are a lottery where you almost always lose. It’s either an instant detect or malware inside.

Use a spoofing tool. Even if you’re confident in the software. A spoofing tool is insurance that costs pennies but can save you tens of thousands on new hardware or an account.

Read the instructions. Every cheat comes with a launch guide. Don’t be lazy—read the whole thing. Half of the problems newbies face come from skipping a step in the instructions.

Don’t talk about the software in-game. Don’t brag, don’t respond to provocation, and don’t admit to using it. Reports from other players speed up the review of your account.

The world of software for shooters isn’t a “press a button and instantly become a top player” kind of thing. These are tools that require understanding, configuration, and a responsible approach. Understand the features, set up your system, monitor statuses, use a spoofing tool—and your experience will be completely different from that of a newbie who downloaded the first public server they came across and got banned ten minutes later.

Use your head, read the instructions, don’t skimp on the settings—and everything will be fine.