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Escape from Tarkov Has One of the Worst Cheating Problems Ever

PvE might be the quick but painful fix.

Escape from Tarkov’s community is a bit divided regarding the cheating problem in the game. Some players feel that cheating is inevitable in all games. Some players start hating people who complain about cheaters because they accuse anyone who beats them at the game. After dying to them countless times, you lose track of how players play “legitimately” anymore.

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The simple truth is that cheaters exist, and that’s a plain fact of gaming in general. So, how bad is the cheater problem in Escape from Tarkov, really?

g0at’s Escape from Tarkov Cheating Exposé

A content creator who goes by “g0at” made an unbelievable and unique video exposing the cheaters in Escape from Tarkov. The whole video talks about how to expose the hackers… by using hacks to spot them. Throughout the video, you’ll learn how these hackers move and play the game. It is still hard to tell how rampant the hackers are since this video only shows one region of the game: North America.

However, the purpose of this feature is not to talk about everything g0at explained in his video but to expand on it. When I watched g0at’s video talking about the “wiggle,” it confirmed that both are hackers and probably have a truce not to kill each other, which is sometimes not always the case.

I already knew this was a thing way back in the Asia servers. I learned it from a friend years before the video came out who said, “Try aiming at the direction of the PMC spawns and wiggle. Maybe they’ll leave us alone.”

Escape from Tarkov’s Cheating Problem is Worse than You Think

For more context, I have played Escape from Tarkov for several years, lasting around 3,000+ hours, mostly on Asia servers. In most wipes, you cannot play Labs since there are a high amount of cheaters on our servers. This is why my friend told me to aim at PMC spawns and wiggle since it is easy to look at another PMC spawn because Labs is small and easy to memorize.

You may be wondering… how do I know they were cheaters? Well… most hackers in Asia don’t even hide it. Ever since Escape from Tarkov introduced the “view profile” of your killer on the death screen, you’ll also know what loadout they are using. If you see them with nothing, it is either a bug or they also died after your death. However, if you see them wearing a default SVD with no scope, attachments, and a big bag while not having the Edge of Darkness or Unheard edition icons, it is almost guaranteed they are hacking.

I mean, the way you die is also suspicious already since they don’t even hide it. They’ll either run straight to the loot first or “visit” players near valuable loot areas, so they can’t get the items. Since players can still save items by putting them in their secure container, hackers will make sure these players don’t even get the loot to begin with.

But what could the motivation for the rampant hacking be? The biggest possibility is real money trading or RMT.

How RMT Affects Escape from Tarkov and How it Might Be Worse than Cheating

The biggest problem with real money trading is how third-party companies can monetize games with in-game economies. Escape from Tarkov is one of the biggest games for these companies. The market is easily exploitable because of the in-game flea market, the loot system, and even the quests’ difficulty.

I have researched this theory, looking into third-party companies that sell “services” and “items” for real money. Most companies only act as middlemen in orders. A consumer pays for an item or service. The company holds the money until the “booster” finishes the order. Once completed, the company releases the payment after waiting for proof that the order was successful.

After looking into some of these websites or companies, some easily finish 10,000 or more orders monthly. Those are astonishing numbers. You can look through these “services,” and you’ll find boosters finishing Shooter Born in Heaven for you or even grind your account to player level 55.

They sell Roubles for around $4 to $6 per million, depending on the booster’s “stock.” There are quest services, boss-killing services, maxing-out trader services, and even the full Kappa service for $1,000+.

At this point, I am more impressed than shocked at these services and how almost every aspect of the game is monetized in this shady way.

Now, even after learning about all of this, my mind started to wander back to those Labs raids. See, some of the raids where I know I died to hackers were still quite odd.

For example, I noticed two players running in my direction, coming from a huge distance, and the way I was positioned, they couldn’t possibly hear or see me. In this situation, it felt almost like a free kill, but the person who peeked at me did it poorly, and he got taken out.

Since I was now exposed, I ran for it, and I ran far. But the other person wouldn’t let up. The chase continued forever, and I eventually got lasered through the tents. I died – head, nape. Good players wouldn’t chase taking the same route as the target. They would most likely cut corners or flank if there is a significant distance between the targets. Also, you wouldn’t waste bullets trying to hit a concealed moving target if you were any good at the game… unless you could see through walls.

Normally, I wouldn’t even call this a hacker. But, I realized this situation was odd because the first person who peeked looked like an absolute beginner. It could be a friend playing with this person who is new to the game, but it could also be more nefarious than that…

After looking through the services from different sites, I found rental services for these “boosters.” They’ll accompany you to do whatever you want. There’s also a pilot and self-play method, meaning if you avail yourself of a pilot, you’ll hand over the account, and they’ll stream for you while they do what you tell them to do.

Self-play means that you will play alongside these professionals for some extra cash. That got me wondering about these “Labs” runs as there are times that I know there are full squads, and they all split, covering different areas. It is almost like clockwork, where everyone is designated to loot one area of the map, and another player wipes out all the other players on the server.

Now, if you have “hacks” to run all these services, it seems like good business. If you are a real professional offering these boosting services, which is already against the ToS, those basic accounts with severely inflated K/DRs are too suspicious.

In wipe 0.16, I’ve encountered multiple hackers in Labs, hoping to get the GPSA, MCC, and the board for my hideout. Since Labs is the hottest map for hackers because of all the high-value loot inside, almost all these RMT boosters exclusively run these maps, making them unplayable, especially in Asia servers. While it is nice that they all get funneled here, I stubbornly ran Labs until I got a clean raid. In those experiences, I’ve seen so many different types of “services” made, which is disgusting.

State of Cheating Over the Years in Escape from Tarkov

While to some, it might not be big news. Even one of the most popular streamers, Pestily, who plays on Asia or OCE servers, has been vocal about the cheaters in the region. This is significantly higher than in other regions, so I learned to switch to North American servers whenever possible.

These streamers are mostly subject to hate because some get called out for always complaining about hackers. It is extremely frustrating to die to hackers; these streamers have enough experience to know whether a player is “legit” or not. Some might not do it correctly, but overall, the best players know how to deduce if the other players are suspicious or not.

The main problem is how Battlestate Games tackles these issues. Battlestate Games heavily relies on the report system to find a hacker. You’ll get a message from the “System” and see any caught cheaters from your reports. You even get Roubles as a reward for reporting them.

However, all the times I was blatantly hacked do not even come close to the System messages I receive. Hackers are still as rampant as ever, and they are even getting creative with it, using “CPU fryer” cheats to crash another player’s game. They have god mode, prone-to-the-ground-and-move-like-an-RC-Car, vacuum all items, radar (ESP), and more.

And honestly, it doesn’t look like it’ll ever be fixed because there’s too much money to be made. But that’s just my opinion about a problem in a game I truly love.


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Author
Image of Enzo Zalamea
Enzo Zalamea
Enzo is a staff writer at Prima Games. He began writing news, guides, and listicles related to games back in 2019. In 2024, he started writing at Prima Games covering the best new games and updates regardless of the genre. You can find him playing the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Path of Exile, Teamfight Tactics, and popular competitive shooters like Valorant, Apex Legends, and CS2. Enzo received his Bachelor's degree in Marketing Management in De La Salle University and multiple SEO certifications from the University of California, Davis.