Rotating in competitive Fortnite has gone through a ton of iterations. We had the days of the Baller, the Shockwaves, the Shadow Bombs, and, of course, the post-Launch Pad removal days when people would just have an unspoken truce while they walked to the next circle.

Players are always trying to find a safe and reliable way to make it to the next zone without getting shot. For a while, the best way to do this has been with the short-pad. This involves building a ramp over a Launch Pad so that it shoots you straight rather than into the air.

• Read More: A game of chess: an interview with a Fortnite cheat developer

With the addition of Crash Pads into the competitive loot pool, however, players are beginning to use them in conjunction with Launch Pads to jump further while remaining safe. Here’s one example from YouTuber OrangeGuy, although there are easier variations to pull off.

OrangeGuy got some flack for this tweet from players who said “trick-shotters have been doing this since Crash Pads came out.” This is true – they have been – but they’ve been using the strategy in a much flashier way.

Now, competitive players can use the strategy – not to hit crazy shots but to move to the next zone. Here’s a much easier and quicker way to use this strategy than what OrangeGuy showcased.

We’re sure that pros will continue to innovate on this strategy – as always – and we’ll be here to showcase some of the more interesting variants. Until we inevitably find a new one – this strategy is one of the best ways to make it to the next zone in a hurry.

Finally, the long wait is over. Cars are coming to Fortnite on August 5. Epic announced their release in a series of tweets on August 3 and 4, hyping up the community for what might be the most anticipated release of Fortnite Chapter 2.

Since the community has been waiting for cars for so long, data miners have been giving players what they want in the way of leaks as to how these cars will perform. For instance, we know that there will be four different types of cars in the game. Epic are releasing the names of these cars as promotion for their release, but FortTory gave us the stats back in June.

As many players already know, you’ll need to refuel the cars while you drive around. You can already see the gas station icons scattered around the map while using a boat or Choppa – the former is disabled at the time of writing, although it had been visible for weeks.

• Read More: A game of chess: an interview with a Fortnite cheat developer

We also know a bit about the mechanics of cars. You will, reportedly, be able to gain metal by using the tire skid mechanic to run into things. The maximum speed will likely depend on the car, but will, reportedly, top-out at 45 mph.

Predictably, cars will damage players when they explode. The numbers in the game files were 200 damage to a player – enough to one-shot. This could be changed when the cars come out, however.

According to some of the additional leaks, the number of cars that spawn around the map will vary from game to game. There will be at least one on the map at all times and a maximum of 10.

Again, this could change and may have been a placeholder, as this particular piece of information comes from a couple of months ago when cars were first found in the game files.

Of course, all of this is subject to change. We’ll know everything for sure when the new patch releases tomorrow, August 5. We’ll have you covered with everything you need to know about cars when they make their way into Fortnite, so stay tuned!

On July 31, we covered the story of a Fortnite player known as Bman. Bman was exposed for allegedly using cheats during the Bugha Cup and Cash Cups leading up to this tournament. His trio teammates in the Bugha Cup were the ones to expose him.

Zykoma, one of Bman’s former teammates, tweeted several clips that showed Bman tracking players that should be invisible to him. In the tweet, he wrote, “I’m posting this to show how easily these hacks are accessible and can go multiple tournaments undetected.”

After discussing the topic with the players involved, I was sent some information on how Bman got these cheats. One thing led to another and I found myself in a Discord server for a cheat developer – selling cheats for Fortnite, PUBG, and Apex Legends. I was directed to one of the Discord admins and creators of the cheats. For the purpose of this article, he will be referred to as “Clay,” to avoid potential misuse of this feature for promotional purposes.

• Read More: Fortnite pro banned for encountering a bug in FNCS

Clay agreed to be interviewed and provided some insight into cheating in Fortnite along with general information about himself and why he does what he does. According to Clay, he and his partner(s) sell one of the only effective cheats that gets through the Fortnite anti-cheat. He could not confirm nor deny whether these were the cheats that Bman used before his disqualification from the Bugha Cup.

I went into this conversation thinking that Clay would talk about the abundance of cheaters in Fortnite and how easy it is to get around their anti-cheat. I thought I’d find someone who just wants to watch the world burn – sending as many cheaters into a game as they could. As it turns out, neither assumption ended up being true. Let’s get into it.

An interview with a Fortnite cheat developer

People are calling out the Fortnite anti-cheat. Would the Valorant anti-cheat detect this type of cheat? I know that’s supposed to be much more advanced than other games.

The Valorant anti-cheat is definitely good, presumably the best anti-cheat since ESEA, both insanely invasive in ways that the communities have already found out about without any developers having to prove.

It’s highly unlikely that any anti-cheat can detect our cheat(s) as it’s operating at an extremely low level compared to what they’re used to, and if they could see how we do it then they’d most likely steal some of our ideas.

In Fortnite – with public tournaments and open qualifiers – there seems to be a lot more incentive to use cheats to earn money. The same is true for developing cheats, I assume.

To be honest, we love what we do, and making money is simply an addition to it, we don’t do this for a living or else we’d have many more customers.

Cheating has been around since forever, it has definitely changed and evolved from even year-to-year, but it’s still cheating. The difference is definitely huge between players using it for content or public matches, as opposed to using it to earn tons of money but along with that, there are also greater risks. When you start trying to use third-party software or even non-tool assisted cheating for money, that’s when legal actions begin to become a risk.

You said you do it for the love of the game and not for the money. What do you love about it? Getting around the system? Trying to have the best product?

Bypassing anti-cheats is a hobby, similar to how cheating in games is a hobby. It’s enjoyable to bypass something that isn’t supposed to be bypassed, and ahead of that we also provide for someone else’s hobby which is cheating in a game. The money made isn’t important, it’s a bonus to what we do.

We don’t even try to compete to have the best product, we’re known for having the most secure products for many years now but we don’t even attempt to mass-sell or advertise what we do, it simply comes to us because of how well we do it. It’s simply a hobby, and when you do it well, people realize it.

Besides, when we see anti-cheats doing illegal stuff like pulling information from user’s computers or even dumping memory – we want them to realize we can see what they’re doing. What we do is just as illegal as what they do, probably even less illegal as they’re doing it to millions of players. Well, it would be illegal but no one cares about the TOS each player agrees to. I guess cheaters and RE’s (reverse engineers) just enjoy being on the opposite side.

The prices you list are quite expensive for a hobby. What do you think people get out of cheating in a game if not money and notoriety? Calling it a hobby suggests that people are doing it for fun – not trying to earn money or make a name for themselves.

There are definitely people who just cheat as a hobby, it may require an investment but when there’s only one undetected cheat – people are willing to pay any price. Of course, there are people who also do it to gain an advantage and win tournaments, but those rarely ever continuously cheat.

Would you say that yours is the only undetectable cheat in a particular game?

In the specific game we’re talking about (Fortnite), yes. At least the only one undetected that isn’t extremely private and selling for over $2,000 a month.

Okay. So in your opinion, cheating in Fortnite isn’t as widespread as people seem to think it is? Right now, a lot of pros are suspicious.

Cheating with third-party programs isn’t as big as people think it is. There may be other forms of cheating, but not with third-party programs like this, as it’s extremely rare or difficult for someone to get their hands on something like this.

I did see someone named “Zygama” (Zykoma) or something like that saying something along the lines of “I want to spread awareness to show how easy it is for people to get cheats that can go multiple tournaments without being banned.” This is extremely false.

I’m in contact with many other developers and well-known cheaters who have tried numerous cheats and created cheats who haven’t even been able to go a few days without getting banned.

The cheat we’re offering isn’t something out of the ordinary, and we aren’t regular RE’s with basic knowledge. We’ve been making cheats for over a decade, and to make this cheat as safe and undetected as it has cost us many weeks of reversing and studying how the anti-cheats work, luckily we didn’t go out of our general knowledge as everything they do – we’ve already seen in previous anti-cheats.

Do you play Fortnite or any of the other games you have cheats for? When you do play, do you cheat?

I personally don’t play the games, or if I do play them it’s only with intentions to add/debug something about the cheat. I’m not entirely a gamer, not anymore at least.

“It bothers me when people say ‘fix your anti-cheat’ to developers who work day and night to catch a cheat that snuck past what they took months developing.”

Would you ever switch sides and work for the good guys, catching cheaters and making anti-cheats?

Creating an anti-cheat was something a colleague and I have thought about, but there’s something better about being the “bad guys”.

Besides, when you’re working on this side of the field not only are you learning the tricks anti-cheat developers are using, but you’re also using your full knowledge to create new ideas while also understanding other’s ideas. Which is something anti-cheat developers can’t do, unless they get access to that specific cheat.

I will say that it bothers me when people say “fix your anticheat” to developers who work day and night to catch a cheat that snuck past what they took months developing. They truly work hard, but it’s not an easy task to get rid of every single cheat available to people. Then when certain cheats like this one comes up, that they’ve never seen before or have an idea how it works – they can’t do anything but spend half of their salary on getting their hands on the cheat to detect it.

This cheat is definitely going to be something head-breaking for them to solve though, and they will learn a lot from it if, and only if they are able to figure out even a small portion of it.

I want to get back to the prevalence of cheating in Fortnite. This past weekend the topic blew up with the FNCS. Has anything changed or is that statement still true?

I don’t know of any cheats that are undetected, at all – other than us. I think Fortnite cheating is really dead, and I don’t see it taking any turn anytime soon. Specifically speaking about third-party program cheating, because other forms of cheating may definitely be common.

Of course, teaming and all of that, but we’ve seen a ton of clips of players with “suspicious” aim and tracking from this weekend. Do you think players are seeing something in clips that isn’t there or are more players actually using cheats?

We opened 5 slots prior to all of these tournaments. I’m not claiming any of those users are my customers and there have been numerous clips of people having suspicious aim who are simply just good.

It’s highly unlikely that these users are cheating, but I do think Fortnite is becoming scared of what’s going on and are enforcing bans without their anti-cheat picking up a clue. They’re definitely desperate to clean up their game, but as I said it’s highly unlikely that these players are using cheats unless they’re paying what they make from the tournaments to only keep the publicity.

Can you clarify what the “slots” mean?

We have limited slots for each product we offer in order to prevent an abundance of cheaters, it’s also an easier and more secure way to handle the cheats as opposed to mass-selling it. Usually, we have 25 slots for our products, but for Fortnite, we’d like it a bit more private as there are no other cheats that offer the security we offer.

Really, so at one time only 5 people were cheating using your cheats during the FNCS?

Correct, as I said it’s very rare to have secure cheats and we don’t want to hurt the game any more than we already do.

“This is definitely like a game of chess though, and I hope they’re enjoying it the way I am; except I’m a few moves ahead at the moment.”

You have an interesting stance on game development. Not wanting to hurt the game, standing up for anti-cheat developers, etc.

Truth is I like what I do, I’m not attempting to hurt anyone by doing this. There is a lot that could be bragged about, but there’s a limit to when you can brag.

The anti-cheat developers are trying their hardest, but there’s always someone who’s better, just as I’m sure there’s someone better than us – they just haven’t shown up yet. This is definitely like a game of chess though, and I hope they’re enjoying it the way I am; except I’m a few moves ahead at the moment.

The takeaway

My primary takeaway from this conversation was this: according to (self-proclaimed) one of the only successful Fortnite cheat providers on the internet, there aren’t a ton of cheaters in Fortnite, especially in official tournaments. There are, undoubtedly, people using third-party cheats in Fortnite tournaments, but they aren’t nearly as common as the professional community seems to think.

• Read More: Benjyfishy accusation shows how easy it is to cry “teaming”

What’s more, the Fortnite anti-cheat – which has been getting a lot of flack from pros – is one of the better systems in gaming. It might not be as sophisticated as some, but it’s far better than the anti-cheat in other popular games. According to Clay, their cheats wouldn’t even be registered by the most stringent anti-cheats in gaming, anyway. If you take his claims at face value, then you acknowledge that he’s creating a cheat – unseen in gaming until now.

Cheating will always be a part of gaming. As Clay told me, it’s a game of chess between cheat and anti-cheat developers. There will always be people like Clay, who enjoy skirting the system by developing cheats. There will always be players who purchase these cheats as a way to gain an advantage – or to, simply, anger other players.

I decided to look at the silver lining of the information we received: cheating in Fortnite isn’t that bad. Third-party cheating Fortnite tournaments seems to be even less of an issue.

Sure, some people will get away with it and Epic can’t keep up with everyone. As players, all we can do is keep an eye out and report what we see without getting too paranoid. As Ballatw stated in a tweet, false and frivolous accusations only harm the community.

This appears to be the end of my communication with Clay, for now. He claims to have no knowledge of any particular players who are cheating in Fortnite – although I have my doubts about that. I wouldn’t expect him to admit it if he did. I’m taking some of his claims with a grain of salt, but feel as though he has no reason to lie about most of what he told me.

Hopefully, this interview gives players and developers alike more of an insight into the world of hacking in video games – specifically in Fortnite. Fortnite players can take some comfort in the knowledge that the anti-cheat is strong and catches most of the wrongdoers.

Some cheaters will always slip through the cracks, but those who use third-party software in tournaments are subject to legal action. It’s a huge risk that carries more of a punishment than public humiliation if a player is caught.

I can only hope that this information helps to give some competitive Fortnite players peace of mind, dissuades potential cheaters, and informs those who were interested ideology of a cheat developer. I’ll be answering some questions on the FortniteINTEL Twitter account, so make sure to follow us there.