Blog

Dec 21, 2023

Dota 2 hacks are over a year old and Valve hasn’t banned them

A series of Dota 2 hacks are still in working order despite being flagged well

A series of Dota 2 hacks are still in working order despite being flagged well over a year ago, highlighting Valve's supposed lack of interest in the MOBA

Lauren Bergin

Published: Dec 12, 2022

Dota 2 hacks are the bane of most player existences. Rival MOBA League of Legends takes a harsh stance on any rule-breaking, and is quick to clamp down on any illegal behaviour. Unfortunately, one fan has highlighted Valve's supposed lack of interest regarding Dota's security on Reddit, showing off a series of hacks that are still in working order a year on from their discovery.

Posting on the game's subreddit over a year ago, one player took an arrow to the knee for the team and purchased several different Dota 2 hacks – one of which they claim has existed since 2014. With everything from auto-harass (a system that prevents creeps aggroing to you in-lane) and a full blown AI mode, the player bought a whole buffet of badness to test out in-game.

A year later, and it turns out all of the hacks they picked up are still usable in-game. "In over a year, absolutely nothing has changed," they lament in a lengthy Reddit post.

"It has become even worse because Valve does not even bother banning in huge waves anymore. I have checked the forums of two ‘premium’ hacks and the only times where people got banned was when they used hacks very obviously. In the past, Valve mass banned hackers like twice a year or so. The last forum post I have found where hackers talked about a mass ban wave was in 2019."

They conclude with a solemn "it is really disappointing to see that Valve has given up punishing hackers. They have complete free pass and unless they really obviously hack they can just do whatever they want."

The list of hacks the player bought initially can be seen here, and there are some particularly nasty exploits on this list. You’d think that some of these would be game-breaking enough to merit immediate attention, but it seems like that isn't the case.

Unfortunately, this whole situation plays into the overarching narrative that appears to have overshadowed the game for a while now: it seems like Valve just doesn't care. This year's iteration of The International was slated for a vast array of easily fixable problems, while ongoing issues with the recent battle pass left players without rewards. With the mysterious Neon Prime on the cards, it looks like all of the developer's efforts are being ploughed into this instead, leaving Dota in a sorry state.

Hopefully we’ll see another hacker crackdown soon, but in the meantime you can check out the best Dota 2 custom games if you’re looking to avoid cheaters. We also have a list of some of the best Dota 2 heroes if you’re looking to maximise your chances of defeating rulebreakers.