Online Game Exploits & Exploiting
In Short: Exploiting is the use of bugs (programming flaws) found in a game in order to get an advantage (to cheat). Using exploits can lead to the most overpowered cheats available in MMOs and MMORPGs, which sometimes leads to the whole game economy crashing. The use of exploits is against the Terms of Service of most games and will very often result in a ban, if the developers find out about it. Therefore we recommend you only use exploits you find yourself and before they are public.

How Exploits Work
While there are literally thousands of different exploits that could potentially be found in any game, they all are based on a flaw in the game (aka bugs/glitches/lag ect). One of the best know kinds of exploits in MMOs is probably the duping exploit that can allow a player to duplicate items or other objects in the game world. But there are a lot of other bugs that can get you an advantage: Bugged spawn points can let you farm XP, Money and Levels easily, mobs that give too much loot or experience, bugged quests, bugged market prices, bugged auction houses, bugged item sending mechanisms, bugged abilities can allow for effective farming or even semi-god modes and a lot more. The possibilities are literally endless. With most online games most exploits are used in the first 12 months of it’s life time, after that the developers usually patch them all sooner or later. How do they get patched? Well usually someone makes the exploit public, thousands of players start using it and the developers have to patch it in order to keep the game from breaking. However, it has to be assumed that some exploits never get public and never get patched, since an exploit that does not get out of hand, usually does not get fixed. Many MMORPG players assume that many of the gold sellers and item sellers out there are either directly or indirectly using private exploits. I for one agree: Some exploits require very specific conditions and may never be discovered by another person and may stay private forever. How do you know whether something is an exploit or intended part of the game? – Use logic: If something seems too good to be true, it’s probably an exploit.



How do You Use Exploits?
Well that really depends. There are some that can be done manually, some that require the use of software and some that require even more complex conditions, such as lag and multiple accounts ect. Usually, the simpler an exploit is, the more people find it and the faster the exploit will be patched. Exploits are not something that is reliable either. Most duping exploit for example do not have a success rate above 2% if done manually, since most depend on perfect timing, and this number is bound to decrease even further as technology progresses. Bots are a lot more proficient at exploiting games, since they can certainly nail the timing aspect a lot better than a human being can and they do not get tired either. For some exploits a simple click bot is enough to automatically farm respawning mobs or gathering nodes. Other exploits can easily be done by hand, such as bugged vendor prices. However, keep in mind that if an exploit can be done manually, you are probably not the first to notice and you might endanger your account by overusing it. Most important thing about using exploits however is: Use the exploit carefully. Most developers can see how much EXP, Money or Items come into your account and if you are the #1 in the world when it comes to gold earned or similar, that is certainly suspicious and warrants further investigation by the game mods. Just take it slow, even if you just struck gold. If you really think you have found something no one else knows, make a few alts and spread your activity over multiple account in order to protect yourself.

How to Find Exploits?
Most online game exploits that get public are found by accident and not by people looking for them. However, there certainly are people that literally make a living off of exploiting games. – They are usually the ones that are selling gold or other in game currency even cheaper than the biggest bot farmers can. – Yes they do exist and most of them have a background in programming and do have a very good idea of how the game works on the server side. I myself do not know much about programing, but that a talented programmer has a far better chance at finding and reproducing glitches, dupes and other exploits is quite clear to me. – Now when it comes to giving tips about finding exploits, it do not have the most extensive experience myself. However, a lot of dupes for example are either based on using an object in 2 different contexts at the same time, allowing if a small chance for the server to glitch and duplicate an item. Sometimes the presence of lag is required for such a process to work, sometimes it’s not required and sometimes it’s fully impossible. So trying to use an item to craft and equip during a lag spike would be one way to try duping. However, actively trying to break a game is an excruciating process of lots and lots of trial and lots and lots of error. So, unless you know exactly what you are trying to do, it will probably just lead to you burning out and not going through with it for too long. It takes a very special kind of person with an unbelievable attention span and lots of patience to actively find exploits and that is why most are found by accident. Some people will try and force the game server to lag by using DDoS attacks. – You need to know that this is illegal, costs the developers a lot of money and we do not approve of it in any way.



Will I get Banned for Using Exploits?
Again, that depends on the game you are playing and it’s developers. Most developers will not screw around when it comes to exploits that could potentially ruin the game, the economy, player experience or their earnings. – These will usually get you banned in a heartbeat with most developers. Sometimes they only ban the worst offenders and issue limited time bans for smaller offenders in order to protect the “accidental” exploiters. Also generally, if the exploit is visibly observable by other players and they report you, you will have to expect a ban, since there is actual visual evidence of your cheating activity. But those are just the general tendencies. At the end of the day you are completely at the mercy of the game developers and moderators. Try not to use public exploits: If you see a video on YouTube giving you a manual how to dupe in your favorite game and it has 100.000 views, you might not want to try it, because if 100.000 players watched it, the developers will catch on soon. Just use common sense and you will be fine, as with pretty much all cheating methods.

What are Dupes / Duplications?
Dupes aka Duplications are a very specific kind of exploit that duplicates items, currency or other objects in the game world. At beginning of the life-cycle of a game there can be some pretty easy duping methods that are usually patched within weeks: For example you may put something on the auction house, then stop your auction and suddenly have 2 of the item you just put up for auction. Later, dupes are achieved by using items in different contexts at the same time: Stashing and Dropping an item at the same time for example. Some dupes also require the presence of lag or other very specific conditions. – There is really cookie cutter method of duplicating items in games. In some games it’s possible (more than you would think) and in some it’s not. In some it is possible to do manually in others it’s not. In some games you need lag in other you do not. The only way to find out is to try, try, try. According to my experience, most MMORPGs that gets released on to the market will be the victim of duping at some point in its lifetime, leading me to assume that almost every virtual item can in some way be duplicated. I’m also pretty sure that there is a great amount of duplication techniques that never get public and never get patched.