How to use game cheats safely

Cheats can make a stuck save fun again — or wipe out an entire playthrough's worth of achievements. This guide covers what to check before you enter a code, how each major platform handles cheats today, and what to do if something goes wrong.

Save before you cheat

The single most important rule: make a manual save slot before you enter any cheat. Autosaves are not enough — many games overwrite them within minutes, and once a cheat flag is written to a save it is usually permanent for that file. A dedicated pre-cheat save gives you a clean rollback if the effect is not what you expected, or if it turns out achievements are locked.

A useful habit: keep two save slots per playthrough — one you never touch after you make it, and a rolling "working" slot where you experiment. On PC, copy the entire save directory before any big session. On PlayStation and Xbox, upload the pre-cheat save to cloud storage. On Switch, sync to Nintendo Switch Online. That single minute of setup is the difference between a fun tinkering session and an unrecoverable playthrough.

Understand the achievement trade-off

On PC, most modern engines detect console command use and disable achievements for the affected save. On PlayStation and Xbox, cheat activation frequently blocks trophies and achievements from the moment the code is entered. Nintendo takes the strictest position: any save-file modification outside the game can permanently block online play on the console.

If you care about 100% completion, run one clean save for achievements and a separate save for cheating. Never mix the two.

The behaviour is not consistent across genres. A survival game like Minecraft distinguishes between "Cheats enabled" and "Cheats disabled" at world creation, so achievement lock-out is explicit and reversible per world. A story-driven RPG like Baldur's Gate 3 flips an achievement flag the moment you launch with --auto-continue, and it stays flipped for that save file forever. The cheat page for each game notes the exact behaviour.

Never cheat in online modes

Cheats belong in single-player only. Every major platform's anti-cheat system — VAC, EAC, BattlEye, PlayStation Network enforcement, Xbox Live enforcement, Nintendo Switch Online enforcement — will suspend or permanently ban accounts caught cheating in competitive or online modes. The penalties usually apply to your entire account, not just the game.

The line is sometimes fuzzy on games with mixed single-player and online components. In GTA V, controller-code cheats work in Story Mode and disable trophies, but activating them anywhere near GTA Online is a bannable offence. In Elden Ring, offline-only cheat tables are tolerated, but the moment you sign into the FromSoftware servers with a modified item in your inventory the account is soft-banned. Read the specific cheat page's warnings, not just the general rule.

Popular examples on CheatBook

Reading the theory is one thing; the concrete cheat pages show how it works in practice. A few of the most-visited entries on the site:

• The Sims 4 cheat codes — the archetypal PC console workflow, with money, needs and build-mode commands grouped by function.
• Grand Theft Auto V cheat codes — every controller-input code that has survived from PS3 through PS5.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 cheats (Xbox) — newspaper-unlocked cheat phrases entered from the pause menu.
• Breath of the Wild glitches — pure in-game exploits, no save editing, tracked by patch version.
• Cyberpunk 2077 commands — how to attach the community debug console safely to the current build.

A quick decision framework

Before you enter any cheat, run through four questions:

1. Is this a single-player or offline session? If any online component is active — matchmaking, cloud sync mid-session, an event lobby — stop and go offline first.
2. Does the cheat require a third-party download? If yes, and the download is not the developer's own tool or an established platform-sanctioned mod loader, do not use it.
3. Will this cost me achievements I care about? If yes, fork a save; if no, proceed on the current save.
4. Is the cheat page's "verified working on" version close to my install? If your version is far newer, the cheat may have been patched — check for a note in the comments or a newer submission.

A "yes / no / yes / yes" scoreline is the safest possible run. Anything else, slow down and re-check.

Watch out for fake "cheat" downloads

CheatBook only publishes in-game codes, tips, and walkthroughs. Any page or forum that asks you to download a "trainer", "unlocker", modded APK, IPA file, cracked EXE, or ROM is not a cheat — it is almost always malware, an account stealer, or pirated content. We do not link to any of it, and we remove submissions that do.

Platform-by-platform guides

Each platform handles cheat activation differently. Read the guide for the platform you play on:

• PC cheats — developer console commands
• PlayStation cheats — controller button sequences
• Xbox cheats — controller input codes
• Nintendo cheats — in-game unlocks and hidden interactions
• Mobile cheats — in-app tips for iOS and Android

How CheatBook moderates submissions

Every cheat on the site starts as a user submission and is reviewed by a human moderator before it goes live. We reject anything that requires piracy, points to a third-party download, or violates a game publisher's terms — for example, save-file editing tools for competitive games. Cheats that pass review are marked "approved" and appear on the corresponding game page.

If a cheat stops working after a patch, or you know a cleaner version of the same trick, please submit an update. Community corrections are the fastest way we keep the database accurate.

When a cheat does not work

Three things usually explain a "broken" cheat:

1. The game has been patched since the cheat was submitted.
2. The cheat is tied to a specific region or platform version.
3. The input timing is too slow — many button-sequence codes have a short window.

Check the submission date and platform on the cheat page before you assume the code itself is wrong. If you can confirm the code no longer works on the current version, submit a report so a moderator can update the entry.