Aimbot: What are aimbots in online FPS games?

An aimbot is a cheating tool players use in first-person shooters that automatically aims at any opponent on-screen and shoots at them with almost 100% accuracy. It helps people by locking onto an enemy and getting perfect shots without manually adjusting their aim or crosshair. Using aimbots is considered cheating because it gives people an unfair advantage against others who aren't using any tools since it lets them get kills regardless of their skill level.

Aimbots are commonly found in competitive FPS titles like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty ^[1]. Since they are a form of cheating, most of these games automatically ban players who use those tools. Some titles aren't good at detecting cheats, so these types of hacks are rampant, but others that use dedicated anti-cheats, like Riot's Vanguard for Valorant ^[2], are effective at stopping people from cheating.

How do aimbots work?

The way aimbots work differs from game to game, as do the tools. Players that install an aimbot have a window that allows them to set how aggressively they want the tool to aim at the enemy, where it can range from looking suspicious to being blatant. Most of these tools include other cheating methods like wallhacks, which lets them look at enemies through walls.

These aimbots detect enemies by looking at specific colors on the player's screen and checking if they match an enemy's. For example, an old Overwatch 2 hacking tool's aimbot worked by cross-referencing the color of the outlines of enemies with what's in the app, which automatically adjusted the mouse to move towards those outlines.

References

1. [1] "Call of Duty official website". www.callofduty.com. Retrieved October 05, 2024
2. [2] "official Valorant homepage". playvalorant.com. Retrieved October 05, 2024