Module A3 · Operate & secure

Choosing an anti-cheat

New owners think anti-cheat is a product you buy that makes cheating stop. It is not. The strongest protection is a server that never trusts the client. Anti-cheat is a layer on top of that. It is not a replacement for it. This is the decide companion to the anti-cheat build lesson. That one writes the server guards. This one helps you choose what to buy on top of them so you spend money on the right thing.

You'll learn: What anti-cheat can and cannot do, how to score options without getting sold snake oil, the layers that actually stop cheaters, and the red flags when buying.
Time: ~20 minutes.
You need: An understanding of client vs server authority (the trust lesson).

BEFORE YOU START

How to evaluate an option

Score every product you look at on the same six things. A high price or a busy sales thread does not earn a point. Evidence does.

Score each option on these

Server-side detection: Does it check on the server, or does it trust a report the client sends? A cheater can fake any report from the client.
Active maintenance: Updated in the last weeks or months? Cheats keep changing. A stale anti-cheat is dead weight.
Performance cost: What does it add in resmon? (resmon is the in-game resource monitor. You open it by typing resmon in the F8 console, the developer console you open by pressing F8 in-game. It lists each resource and the CPU time it burns in milliseconds.) A heavy anti-cheat that tanks the server trades one problem for another.
Transparency: Can you read what it checks, or is it a sealed blob you must trust with full server access?
Support and community: Real docs, real updates, real replies. Not a hype thread.
Bypass history: How fast are public bypasses patched? Ask in neutral communities, not the seller's own channel.

Keep reading the full lesson

Still ahead in this lesson

The layers that actually stop cheaters
How it works
What you can do now
If something went wrong