Cheat Engine: What is it, How to Install it & How to Use it

cheat engine introduction guide

If you are an ardent PC game cheater, you should’ve by now realized that Cheat Engine is synonymous with over 90 percent of all offline game cheats. But do you know what it really is? Do you know how to install Cheat Engine? Do you know how to use Cheat Engine?

Here is a quick guide to answer all your questions once and for all.

What is it?

Cheat Engine is a free open source tool dedicated to modifying single player games running on the Windows or the Mac platform. The modifications can either make the game easier by giving you added equipment, perks, money, and skill or make it harder by lowering your skill or simply raising game expectations.

The Cheat Engine does this by inspecting memory location modifications done by the game during operation. These changes are then matched to in-game values, for instance, your health bar, your ammo or skill rating. Once you have a successful match, you will know which variables to change in order to affect these readings.

Apart from this, Cheat Engine also packs:

  • A game debugger
  • A disassembler and assembler
  • A speedhack tool
  • A trainer maker
  • Direct 3D manipulation tools

How to Get Started

Head over to the official downloads page and grab the latest copy of the Windows or the Mac installer. Install the given file and launch your Cheat Engine. You will get a popup prompt requesting you to go through the Cheat Engine tutorial. It is wise to go through this tutorial if you don’t want any frustrations in future.

The tutorial teaches you how to mine for actual value changes. Even though this is the engine’s real power, most gamers like you and I just download ready-made Cheat Engine files (.ct) and load them into the cheating engine.

If this isn’t your intent, go through the entire tutorial and learn how to find your own way around different games. Don’t forget to compile your found cheats into a cheat table and share them with the community.

No Set Up (Download and Run) Cheat Engine

Sometimes, it pays to use the no set up version of cheat engine. Just download the set up here, extract the rar file to a folder of your choice and run cheat engine from there. You can even extract it to a flash drive and have your own portable cheat engine.

This makes it easier to clean up cheating records when you want to play an online game. Remember to run the cheat engine as admin for elevated privileges.

How to Load a Cheat Table

Opening a cheat table is easy.

  1. First, you’ll have to download the game specific cheat table and save it somewhere on your PC.
  2. Open Cheat Engine and click on the Open Folder icon. This will open a file browser
  3. Navigate to where you stored your cheat table (.ct) Select the file you want and click open
  4. Alternatively, you can just double-click the .ct files to open them automatically in the app. If your file associations are right, this should work.
  5. If they are not, right-click the cheat table and select open with> cheat engine and remember to tick the always button

Using Cheat Engine When Playing a Game

  • Start the game you want to play
  • Press ALT+TAB to activate windows switch and choose the Cheat Engine window
  • Click the First Icon and then ‘select a process to open.’ Look for gamename.exe (e.g witcher3.exe for Witcher 3 Cheats), select it and click open
  • Click on the next icon to activate the cheat table explorer or press CTRL+O
  • Load the cheat table you downloaded and head back to The game to implement the cheats you just activated
  • Each cheat table has its own hotkeys. Remember to go through the description so that you know what to press or what to do to evoke a change.

Is Cheat Engine Safe?

Many people have issues with Cheat Engine since they are not sure if it is safe. This has led to the big question: Is Cheat Engine safe. Well. The quick answer is yes. I have been using Cheat Engine on the right games for a year or so now and I have never seen it run away on nefarious missions.

The Cheat Engine installer is safe. However, it does have some toolbars and adware bundled in. You can always uncheck the checkbox for each additional to ensure that you install Cheat Engine and nothing more.

But why do some antivirus software flag Cheat Engine as a Trojan or a malicious software? Well. This has to do with how Cheat Engine works.

It is an external tool that modifies the operations of an application, counters, pointers and other memory locations. This is basically what Trojans do. They modify application counters and pointers.

However, since Cheat Engine only modifies what you tell it to modify and never goes making changes on its own, it is 100 percent safe. Think of it as a gun that will never fire a bullet unless you aim and pull the trigger.

The only time Cheat Engine will harm you is when you run it on a PC that has a game with a serious anti-cheat system in place. If you want to use Cheat Engine, ensure that:

  • You don’t have a game that punishes cheats installed in your system
  • If the game is installed, use Windows firewall to block it from accessing the internet ever
  • Always clean uninstall Cheat Engine when you have high-risk games in your system

These are the basics you need to get started with your cheats. Remember that the engine was designed for use on offline games where cheating isn’t illegal. Using Cheat Engine to modify online games or games with an online alternative might result in a terminated account. Ensure that you use the engine responsibly.

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