GabriPUBG cheats are third-party programs, scripts or devices that give one player an edge KRAFTON doesn't allow in PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, such as an aimbot that aims for you, ESP that shows players through walls, a macro that holds recoil down, or a DMA card that reads the game from a second computer.
KRAFTON publishes its ban numbers, and they're large. About 7.81 million accounts had been permanently banned for using cheat programs as of November 2025, and in 2025 alone KRAFTON permanently banned about 260,000 players for DMA-based cheating.
I read KRAFTON's anti-cheat dev letters, its Rules of Conduct and PUBG's Steam page on November 10, 2026. This page covers the 5 kinds of PUBG cheats and hacks, the anti-cheat that catches them, what a cheating ban takes from you, and the one situation an HWID spoofer fits. It's about PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS on PC, with one section on its console version. PUBG Mobile is a separate game with its own rules and help center.
If your PC itself is restricted and a clean account on it still gets blocked, skip to the HWID spoofer section. If you're here because a cheater keeps ending your matches, Saturn isn't your answer, so read straight through.
What Are PUBG Cheats?
PUBG cheats are tools that read what the PUBG client knows, or fake what your hands do, so one player sees, aims or controls recoil better than the game allows.
KRAFTON's definition is wider than most players think. Its Rules of Conduct ban unauthorized programs and hardware devices, naming a specific mouse and a DMA board as examples, and its June 25, 2026 dev letter added that displaying information the game doesn't provide, altering the UI without permission or abnormally accessing the game client are all penalized "regardless of their name or form."
PUBG Support goes one step further: programs that alter the game even when they aren't for cheating, programs that read information from it, and cheats or macros made for other games still break PUBG's rules.
Cheats and hacks mean the same thing here. People search "PUBG hacks" a little more often than "PUBG cheats" in the US, for the same tools, and "PUBG hackers" for the players using them.
Types of PUBG Cheats and Hacks
PUBG cheats fall into five types, and the split I'd look at first is what KRAFTON has publicly said it does about each one.
| Type | What it gives | What KRAFTON targets |
|---|---|---|
| Aimbot | Aim that snaps onto players | AI detection, kernel scan |
| ESP and radar | Players through walls | Anti-ESP on servers |
| Recoil macros | Sprays that don't climb | Macro detection, mass bans |
| DMA cheats | A cheat on a second PC | Zakynthos DMA detection |
| Console devices | Mouse aim on a console | Permanent bans since 2026 |
PUBG Aimbot
A PUBG aimbot finds other players in the game's memory and moves your crosshair onto them, so the cheat does the aiming and you pull the trigger.
That's how an aimbot works in every shooter, and PUBG's long-range fights make it worse. KRAFTON wrote in its June 28, 2025 roadmap that ESP and aimbots are among the tools its community reports most, and that they "continue to evolve and reappear" even after major patches.
Its answer was an AI-powered detection system that analyzes gameplay patterns and suspicious behavior in real time, plus newer models built to trigger automatic bans. An aimbot can hide its code, but it can't hide aim no human produces.
PUBG ESP and Wallhacks
PUBG ESP draws other players through walls and terrain, usually as boxes with names, distance and health, and a radar or map hack puts the same positions on your mini-map.
ESP in games works on one principle: it reads positions the client already holds and paints them on screen, so it never touches your aim. KRAFTON says that makes ESP harder to detect than most cheats, because it doesn't change game data and leaves no trace in the files.
So KRAFTON went after the data instead: its server-side system, Anti-ESP, went live in September 2023 and stops sending the locations of players who are out of sight. KRAFTON measured the effect in March 2024: cheaters' average damage distance fell about 30% against August 2023, and their kills per match fell about 20%.
ESP can only show what the server sent. Anti-ESP sends less.
Recoil Macros and Scripts
A PUBG recoil macro pulls your mouse against the weapon's kick while you hold fire, so a spray that should climb stays on target. Some run as software, some through a macro mouse, and some modify other software on the PC.
KRAFTON treats all of them as cheating: in September 2025 it said it had permanently banned more than 50,000 accounts for tampering with software to remove or reduce recoil, and in February 2026 it reported over 10,000 more retroactive bans for new illegal input devices and software.
If PUBG detects a macro device, the client closes with "Your client will now close due to the detection of an unauthorized device." PUBG Support's advice is to unplug the device and restart the game.
KRAFTON's April 2026 letter said mouse scripts are now "subject to focused detection," so I'd treat a macro as a cheat with a ban attached, not a gray area.
DMA Cheats
DMA cheats read PUBG's memory through a card in your PC that a second computer controls, so nothing suspicious runs on the gaming PC itself.
That's the setup KRAFTON has named as its top priority. Zakynthos, its proprietary anti-cheat, was enhanced against DMA hacks in August 2025, and by early September that year KRAFTON counted more than 80,000 accounts permanently banned for them.
Its 2026 roadmap put the 2025 total at about 260,000 DMA-based cheaters and said "Eradication of DMA cheating remains our top priority."
The Rules of Conduct name the DMA board too. A DMA cheat moves the cheat off the PC. It doesn't move the ban.
Cheating on Console
Console cheating in PUBG mostly means converters, unauthorized adapters that let a mouse and keyboard pass as a controller, plus lag switches and tools that fire faster than a person can.
KRAFTON's October 29, 2026 console letter said console bans were up 44.6% on the year. Since June 29, 2026, players confirmed using unauthorized input devices can be banned permanently, lag-switch bans began in September 2026, and bans for single-fire assist tools were set to start in October 2026.
Memory, screen, mouse, or a second machine. Every PUBG cheat gets its edge from one of those four.
What Anti-Cheat Does PUBG Use?
PUBG uses KRAFTON's own anti-cheat. Steam's store page lists it as KSS (Krafton Security Services) under "Uses Kernel Level Anti-Cheat," and KRAFTON's dev letters call its proprietary solution Zakynthos, in use since January 2021.
Older lists still call PUBG a BattlEye game. PUBG ran BattlEye in earlier years, but none of KRAFTON's 2025 or 2026 anti-cheat letters I read name it, and Steam shows KSS today.
On Your PC
On your PC, PUBG's anti-cheat runs at kernel level. KRAFTON announced a new kernel-based feature on August 11, 2025 that scans the PC's kernel for abnormal code as soon as the PUBG client launches, and says a player confirmed using illegal software is kicked and banned.
It also said the feature catches cheats that try to hide or load before the security system, and that its anti-cheat shuts down when you exit the game.
On PUBG's Servers
On PUBG's servers, the job is to send cheats less to work with. Anti-ESP holds back the positions of out-of-sight players, which is why KRAFTON describes it as eliminating ESP rather than catching it.
This is the layer I'd take most seriously, because it doesn't need to find the cheat at all.
AI, Video Review and Reports
KRAFTON runs what its June 2025 roadmap called a two-track ban system: AI and anti-cheat tech flag abnormal behavior automatically, and its anti-cheat team reviews reported cases by hand. About 39,000 of the 7.81 million permanent bans came from video review.
KRAFTON said in November 2025 that its detection volume had grown about 2.5 times since that roadmap, and detection time had dropped by over 90%. A cheat has to beat the kernel scan, the server and the reviewers, every match, for as long as the account exists.
Is PUBG Still Full of Cheaters?
PUBG still has cheaters, but KRAFTON says their numbers fell through the second half of 2025. Its December 19, 2025 review said cheat-related metrics showed a steady decline and "have remained stable at low levels recently."
KRAFTON doesn't publish a cheater rate, so I can't give you one. What it does publish is the scale of enforcement, in its 2025 anti-cheat review and the letters around it:
- About 7.81 million accounts permanently banned for cheat programs as of November 2025.
- More than 280,000 posts selling or promoting cheats reported to platforms between January and September 2026.
- A Weekly Bans Notice on pubg.com, listing the nicknames of permanently banned accounts with the first 3 letters masked.
KRAFTON also warns that its figures are global and may differ from what you see on a given server. So my answer has two halves: cheaters still get into PUBG, and KRAFTON is banning them in the millions.
What a Cheating Ban Costs You in PUBG
A cheating ban in PUBG costs you the account for good, and it can reach your PC, every other account on it and the players you team with.
KRAFTON's Rules of Conduct and PUBG Support's penalty table stack like this:
- The account. Using, developing, advertising, trading or distributing unauthorized programs and hardware devices carries a permanent ban at its maximum, and PUBG Support says it doesn't unban accounts with evidence of a violation.
- Your hardware. The same rule allows "restrictions of using the Service on your hardware devices," and KRAFTON may stop a specific device from running the game.
- Every account on that device. If KRAFTON finds a player made several accounts on one device or IP address for misconduct, it can ban all of them, even ones played on a different PC or console.
- Your teammates. Players who gain an advantage by teaming with someone who continuously or intentionally uses cheats count as an "abnormal team" and can be penalized too.
- A stolen account. KRAFTON says some stolen accounts are passed to cheaters and get banned. The theft-unban route has limits, and they depend on whether a secondary password is set.
The cost I'd underline is the PC, because a PUBG HWID ban is the one restriction tied to the computer rather than the login, and KRAFTON doesn't publish which hardware identifiers it reads.
If you didn't cheat and think the detection was wrong, a PUBG ban appeal goes through PUBG Support's Ban form. Go in with the numbers in mind: KRAFTON said in November 2025 that about 70% of the appeals in its false-ban review turned out to be confirmed cheat use.
KRAFTON says it's reviewing stronger penalties for teaming with cheaters. One detection, and the account goes. The PC can go with it.
Are Free PUBG Cheats Safe?
No. Free PUBG cheats get the account banned like paid ones do, and free cheats are one of the most common ways gamers end up with infostealer malware.
Flare, a threat exposure management firm, studied 53,896 devices infected with infostealers between June and August 2025. In its November 25, 2025 report, 41% of infections came from a gaming-related file, and cheats, mod menus, aimbots and skin changers made up over half of those.
An infostealer goes after saved passwords, browser sessions and game logins. In PUBG that creates a second problem, because KRAFTON says some stolen accounts get handed to cheaters and banned.
I'd treat any free download promising PUBG hacks as malware until proven otherwise. The file can cost you more than the account does.
What to Do When a Cheater Kills You
When a cheater kills you in PUBG, report them in-game first. KRAFTON's Weekly Bans Notices ask players to use in-game reports before contacting PUBG Support, and its roadmap calls reports, feedback and gameplay data "the compass" for its anti-cheat work.
Then protect your own account: KRAFTON tells players to sign up for Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator, and its secondary password decides how many times a stolen account can be unbanned: once per half-year with it set, once per lifetime without.
I'd report every one, even after the match is lost. And don't keep queuing with a squadmate you suspect, because teaming with a cheater is a ban reason of its own.
Where an HWID Spoofer Fits (and Where It Doesn't)
An HWID spoofer fits one situation in PUBG: KRAFTON has restricted the PC itself, and you want that PC to play again.
That's the one case we build Saturn for. We don't make cheats. That's what an HWID spoofer changes: the hardware IDs your PC reports, such as the CPU, TPM, motherboard, disks, GPU, monitor and network adapter values, so a restricted machine shows up as different hardware.
No cheat cover. No account unban. No protection for an account that keeps cheating, because the cheat gets caught exactly as it was the first time.
Saturn is the wrong answer if:
- You have one account ban and the PC still plays on a fresh account. That's an account ban, not a hardware one.
- You were banned for teaming with a cheater. That's a penalty on the account.
- Your account was stolen and then banned. KRAFTON's hijacking recovery route is the one to use.
- You think the detection was a mistake. Appeal first.
- You expect it to keep a cheating account alive. The next detection bans the next account, and KRAFTON can ban every account it ties to the device.
Better you read that here than find it out after paying.
Where it does fit, Saturn covers PUBG, and the HWID spoofer for PUBG runs from the same single loader as every other Saturn license, with your license deciding which games it covers.
As of November 10, 2026, Saturn is currently undetected by every anti-cheat it supports, and the live status page is where that's tracked day to day. I'd keep one thing straight, though: that's Saturn's own footprint, not your cheat's, and an anti-cheat that catches the cheat still bans the account.
Temporary mode gives you unlimited profiles, and your original IDs come back when you close it, while Permanent mode writes one profile for good.
Where it falls short: KRAFTON is going after this exact route. In its November 5, 2026 dev letter, it said it had banned 10,237 accounts confirmed to have evaded bans by changing their HWID, using identifying information that "remains consistent despite attempts to alter it," and that it had updated that logic four times since October. KRAFTON treats a new account on a banned PC as ban evasion, and a spoofer doesn't change that rule.
Every license comes with a 24-hour free trial, no card needed, only an email address for the key.
PUBG Cheats FAQ
Will I get banned if I play with a cheater in PUBG?
You can be. KRAFTON's Rules of Conduct say a player who gains an advantage by teaming with someone who continuously or intentionally uses cheats counts as part of an "abnormal team" and can be penalized. In November 2026, KRAFTON said it was reviewing stronger penalties for it.
Do PUBG cheaters get hardware banned?
They can. KRAFTON's Rules of Conduct allow restrictions on the hardware devices used to cheat, and let KRAFTON stop a specific device from running PUBG. KRAFTON doesn't say which cheaters get one or which hardware IDs it reads.
Can you cheat in PUBG on console?
Players try, mostly with converters that pass a mouse and keyboard off as a controller. KRAFTON has applied penalties up to permanent bans for unauthorized input devices on console since June 29, 2026, and it said console bans rose 44.6% on the year.
Do macros and recoil scripts get you banned in PUBG?
Yes. KRAFTON counts recoil macros and mouse scripts as cheating. It permanently banned more than 50,000 accounts for recoil-reducing software tampering in September 2025, and it put mouse scripts under focused detection in April 2026.
Does PUBG ban DMA cheats?
Yes. KRAFTON permanently banned about 260,000 DMA-based cheaters in 2025 and calls ending DMA cheating its top priority. Its Rules of Conduct name the DMA board as a banned device.
Does an HWID spoofer hide PUBG cheats?
No. An HWID spoofer changes the hardware IDs a PC reports and does nothing to hide cheat software from KRAFTON's anti-cheat or its reviewers. A cheating account gets caught whether a spoofer is running or not.
Final Thoughts
PUBG cheats come in five types, from aimbots and ESP to recoil macros and DMA cards, and KRAFTON now fights them with a kernel-level anti-cheat, a server that hides what you can't see, AI detection and people reviewing the reports.
My advice is short. If you're thinking about running one, I've read KRAFTON's own letters, and they count permanent bans in the millions and HWID-change evasion in the thousands. If a cheater keeps ending your matches, report them in-game and lock your account down with a secondary password.
Checked by Gabri on November 10, 2026. Sources: KRAFTON's PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS dev letters and notices on pubg.com: 2021 Anti-Cheat Dev Letter (Zakynthos), Anti-ESP (March 25, 2024), Anti-Cheat Roadmap (June 28, 2025), Introducing a New Anti-Cheat Solution (August 11, 2025), Update on Actions Against DMA-Based Hacks (September 4, 2025), Anti-Cheat Improvements and Actions for Fair Play (November 14, 2025), 2025 Anti-Cheat Review (December 19, 2025), Action Plan Based on Community Feedback (February 11, 2026), Anti-Cheat 2026 Roadmap (March 24, 2026), Anti-Cheat System Improvements (April 17, 2026), Improvements and Future Direction (June 25, 2026), Console Anti-Cheat Update (October 29, 2026), Combating Cheat Distribution and Ban Evasion (November 5, 2026) and the Weekly Bans Notice of November 4, 2026; KRAFTON's Rules of Conduct; PUBG Support's ban, macro-device and unban articles (read October 9, 2026); PUBG's Steam store page; Flare (November 25, 2025). UNVERIFIED: which hardware identifiers KRAFTON's device restrictions read, and whether KSS and Zakynthos are one system or two.