The Cheat Engine is a program lets you use cheats in PC gaming. With the tool, it is possible to make a game easier or more difficult, change the number of lives, make the character immortal and create other effects. See how to use Cheat Engine.
What is?
The Cheat Engine is an open source program that modifies games to make them easier or more difficult if the game seems too easy for you. With it, it is possible to obtain advantages in several games increasing your number of lives, score, energy bar and several other aspects that will make you advance in the game without having so much work.
The program is perfect for those who got stuck at some stage of the game or can’t get past that boss for anything in this world. Therefore, the Cheat Engine, which is free, is a good tool for those who want to get more out of their games.
Did you buy a game and be a little sorry that it is too easy? You can use the Cheat Engine to spice things up, starting with fewer lives or half the energy bar.
The program works as a game code editor, acting in hexadecimal structures. Using it can be a little tricky for those who are still a beginner, but luckily, the app comes with a great tutorial to let you know everything, teaching, right away, how to increase your lives. It comes with a powerful scanner that helps you easily find the values you want to change.
How Cheat Engine Works?
It is aimed specifically at games and allows changing different parameters by touching the game’s allocated memory, which are reserved so that the game can run properly.
The Cheat Engine is able to scan the executable file of the running game and, with some commands, find the exact memory allocated to a parameter that can be edited by the player, which can result in infinite lives, infinite energy, increase or decrease the difficulty, and etc.
We can also say that the Cheat Engine is heir to devices such as Game Genie and GameShark, which allowed inserting codes in console games of the past.
Which games are supported?
Virtually any PC game is compatible with the Cheat Engine, due to the way it makes changes to the game’s allocated memory and the information that is changed, a common element in any software. In theory, any game can be hacked, from the simplest ones, like Windows Solitaire, to AAA games.
By default, it is highly inadvisable to use the Cheat Engine or any other cheat and code tool in online games (whether single or multiplayer), under penalty of banning the platform and loss of progress as permanent punishment.
In addition, it is important to remember that the Cheat Engine is a very controversial software and its developer has already had problems with the ESA (Entertainment Software Association); at the time, the site hosted a forum in which users shared tables with codes, ready to be used in games, something it no longer allows.
The website’s recommendation is to use the program only for “educational purposes”.
How to use Cheat Engine
The way of using the Cheat Engine may seem a little complicated, but it becomes quite simple once you understand what it can do. The basic steps are:
- Add in the Cheat Engine the initial value of the attribute to be changed;
- Scan the memory;
- Change the value of the attribute in the game;
- Add the new value to the Cheat Engine and scan the memory again;
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until only one memory address remains;
- Freely modify the value of the memory address.
Let’s illustrate.
Take a random action game, in which the character has an energy bar with a starting value of 100, and you want to raise it to 1,000. The process will be as follows:
- Go to cheatengine.org, download and install the version of the Cheat Engine for your operating system (Windows or macOS);
- Open the game and the Cheat Engine;
- In the cheat engine, click on the computer icon in the upper left corner;
- Locate the game’s executable in the list of programs and click “Open”;
- Enter the value “100” in the “Value” field next to the “Hex” box;
- In “Scan Type”, select “Exact value”;
- Click the “First Scan” button.
The Cheat Engine will list several memory addresses on the left; - Go back to the game and make the character lose energy, for example, up to 88;
- Back in the Cheat Engine, type “88” in “Value” and click the “New Value” button;
- Repeat steps 7 and 8 until only one memory address is left;
- Double-click the memory address, enter a desired value (for example, 1,000) and click “OK”;
- The energy value in the game will be automatically changed;
- To leave the value fixed (in this case, make the character immortal), check the “Active” box next to the cheat, which will be listed at the bottom of the Cheat Engine.
And ready.