DBD Cheats and Hacks: How Behaviour and EAC Ban Them

Dead by Daylight cheats, or DBD hacks, are third-party programs that give a Killer or a Survivor an edge Behaviour Interactive never built into the game: auras through walls, speed and teleport hacks, scripts that hit skill checks for you, or unlockers that fake ownership of paid content. Behaviour's rules put all of them on the permanent ban list.

That last part is written down. Behaviour's Game Bans article, dated January 21, 2026, puts "Other hacks" on its permanent ban list, next to cheated progress and cosmetics taken from unofficial sources. There's no 48-hour step for cheating.

I read Behaviour's support site, its Steam announcements and its forum posts on cheating on November 9, 2026. This page covers the 6 kinds of Dead by Daylight cheats players run into, what DBD unlockers are, how Behaviour and Easy Anti-Cheat catch cheaters, what a ban takes from you, and the one case an HWID spoofer fits.

If Behaviour has already blocked your PC, and a brand-new account gets blocked on it too, skip to the HWID spoofer section. If you're here because a cheater ruined your trial, Saturn isn't your answer, so read straight through.

What Counts as a Cheat in Dead by Daylight?

A cheat in Dead by Daylight is any third-party software or tool that gives you an advantage the game didn't intend. That's close to Behaviour's own wording for its "Other hacks" rule: "Using 3rd party software or other tools to gain any kind of unfair advantage that wasn't intended by the game."

Behaviour splits the rest of its rulebook in two. Some offenses get a temporary ban that starts at 48 hours.

Cheating sits on the other list, where the first ban is permanent.

• Permanent ban: other hacks, cheated progress or a modified save file (including someone else's), and in-game cosmetics obtained outside official channels, legacy cosmetics included.
• Temporary ban: exploiting bugs or advertising exploits, botting and lag switching.

Two things people expect to see on the list aren't there. Behaviour says it doesn't ban for communication apps, and camping, tunneling, slugging and looping are on its list of invalid report reasons.

Annoying isn't the same as cheating.

Cheats and hacks are the same thing here, too. Whether you search "DBD cheats" or "Dead by Daylight hacks", you're looking at the same tools.

Types of Dead by Daylight Cheats and Hacks

Dead by Daylight cheats fall into six types, and the split I'd look at first is what each one changes: what you see, how you play, how you move, the match itself, or what you own.

ESP and Aura Hacks

ESP in Dead by Daylight shows other players through walls, the way an aura perk does, except it's always on and covers everyone.

For a Survivor that means the Killer's position at all times, and for a Killer it means every Survivor on every generator.

The same overlay can mark objects: generators, hooks, totems, chests and the hatch. ESP cheats work the same way in every game: they read positions the game already holds, so they never touch your aim.

In a game built on hiding in the fog, that's the whole match.

Killer Aimbot

A Killer aimbot locks ranged powers onto Survivors, so a thrown hatchet or a fired harpoon lands where a human hand would miss.

Behaviour hasn't published a list of cheat features, so this one comes from what the cheat market advertises, not from a Behaviour document.

The mechanics are the same as how an aimbot works in a shooter: find the target, work out the angle, move the camera. You only get much out of it on a Killer with a ranged power.

Scripts and Auto Skill Checks

Scripts are small programs that press keys for you, and the one DBD players talk about most hits every skill check perfectly while you repair or heal.

It sounds minor.

But a missed skill check is how a Killer finds a Survivor, and a script that never misses removes one of the game's few checks on skill. It's still third-party software giving an unintended advantage, so it falls under the same permanent rule.

Speed and Teleport Hacks

Speed and teleport hacks change where a player is, not what they see: running faster than the game allows, jumping across the map, or finishing generators and Exit Gates in a fraction of the normal time.

Behaviour named these itself. When it launched its anti-cheat trial on September 2, 2026, it asked players to report what they saw in detail, "i.e. wallhacks, speedhacks, teleporting."

I'd call these the easiest cheats to spot from the other side of a chase.

Lobby and Match Tampering

Lobby and match tampering covers cheats that attack the match itself rather than the player: forcing your way into a chosen player's lobby, or holding a match open long after it should have ended.

Behaviour described both in its September 22, 2022 "Update on Cheating." It promised measures against "player sniping (forcefully joining a specific player's lobby)" and a failsafe that ends a match running more than 5 minutes past the End Game Collapse.

Lag switching, a player cutting their own connection to freeze the action, gets a temporary ban instead.

Unlockers and Save Edits

Unlockers and save edits go after what you own rather than how you play. Behaviour has separate rules for them, so they get the next section.

Sight, skill, movement, the match, or the account. Every DBD cheat goes after one of those five.

What Is a DBD Unlocker?

A DBD unlocker is a program that makes Dead by Daylight treat paid characters, perks and cosmetics as owned when they were never bought. Behaviour bans for it permanently, and it ran a ban wave against exactly that content in May 2026. Its Game Bans article never uses the word "unlocker," but the rules cover what one hands out.

Here's the wording. "The acquiring of any in-game cosmetic through any means other than Official Dead by Daylight channels" is a permanent offense, and so is holding legacy cosmetics you didn't earn before the November 24, 2016 cutoff. Editing your save file or using someone else's to cheat progress, such as Bloodpoints, is permanent too.

The wave came first. In a May 6, 2026 post on its X account, Behaviour said it had deployed a ban wave "against a number of accounts that had obtained content from unauthorized sources," which breaks both its own EULA and the platforms' EULAs.

Affected permanent bans were cut back as a warning that time, and Japanese outlet Automaton reported that a repeat would bring a permanent ban.

The search results for "dbd unlocker" are download pages, and I don't link any of them.

Flare's research on 53,896 infected PCs found that cracked software was the single most common lure for infostealer malware, at 17.65% of infections. A file that promises free DLC is exactly that kind of lure.

Free content, a permanent ban and a malware risk. I'd call that a bad trade for a cosmetic.

Does Dead by Daylight Have an Anti-Cheat?

Yes. As of November 9, 2026, Dead by Daylight runs Easy Anti-Cheat on PC, and Behaviour backs it with changes to the game client and servers plus manual bans from player reports. The Denuvo Anti-Cheat trial Behaviour ran on Steam in September 2026 is over, and Denuvo is gone from the game.

Behaviour laid out those three layers in its 2022 "Update on Cheating," and opened with a promise: "we have zero tolerance for cheaters. Once we detect someone has cheated (or is trying to cheat), their account is permanently banned from the game."

Easy Anti-Cheat on PC

Dead by Daylight's Steam store page lists Easy Anti-Cheat under "Uses Kernel Level Anti-Cheat," which I checked on November 9, 2026.

Easy Anti-Cheat is Epic's service, and its driver runs while the game is open.

Behaviour calls it the automated layer: "We work with our anti-cheat partner, Easy Anti-Cheat, to report and track new cheats. If the anti-cheat detects one of these being used, they are automatically banned."

Epic's own FAQ adds two details that matter here. EAC gathers hardware identifiers to stop banned players from coming back, and a ban "may not be applied right away," so it can land days after the match.

EAC also blocks software it doesn't trust, and that's where legit players sometimes get scared. Behaviour's support site links its "Game Security Violation Detected" message to RGB lighting software, and since July 30, 2026, outdated overclocking, BIOS and hardware monitoring tools can stop the game from launching until you update them.

Neither one means you're banned.

The Denuvo Anti-Cheat Trial

Behaviour tested a second anti-cheat on the Steam version from September 2 to September 15, 2026. It was Denuvo Anti-Cheat, it was required to play during the trial, and it had nothing to do with Denuvo's anti-piracy DRM.

Behaviour ended the trial after 13 days and removed Denuvo from Dead by Daylight, saying it would review the data before any future trial. Its August 26, 2026 announcement planned trials of more providers "over the coming months."

I went through Behaviour's Steam news back to March 2026 and found no second trial, so which anti-cheat DBD ends up with is UNVERIFIED.

Server Checks and Manual Bans

The other two layers don't run on your PC. Behaviour says it changes "both the game client and dedicated servers" to limit what cheats can do, and that server-side validation "takes authority away from a cheater's game client."

The last layer is people. Behaviour's team looks at in-game reports directly, and its 2022 post says manual bans matter most "when a new cheat has not yet been tracked by the anti-cheat."

In the 7 days before that post, it said it had banned over 2,000 cheaters, and over 200,000 across the life of the game. Those are 2022 numbers; Behaviour hasn't published a newer count, so today's scale is UNVERIFIED.

A new cheat can slip past the driver for a while. It can't slip past you if you record the match and file a report.

What Happens When Behaviour Catches a Cheater?

When Behaviour catches a cheater in Dead by Daylight, the account gets a permanent ban on the first offense, and the ban can reach further than one login.

Here's how it stacks, from Behaviour's Game Bans article, its Terms of Use and its support pages:

• The account. Other hacks, cheated progress and cosmetics from unofficial sources are all permanent ban offenses. You get an in-game notification naming the offense.
• Every future offense. "Any previous permanent bans on your record, including those from previous accounts, will result in all future offenses being permanent bans."
• Your other accounts. Under Behaviour's ban evasion rule, players with several permanent bans who keep offending can lose access on their other accounts too, on any platform.
• Family Sharing. If the account sharing the game gets a Game Ban, every account borrowing the base game and DLC through Family Sharing loses access automatically.
• The PC. Behaviour's Terms of Use let it ban a device, temporarily or permanently, from some or all of its services.

The PC is the layer Behaviour says least about. I read Behaviour's Game Bans article and its anti-cheat support pages, and none gives triggers for a Dead by Daylight hardware ban, a count of bans it takes or a list of identifiers.

So how often it happens is UNVERIFIED.

If you think the ban is a mistake, you can contest a permanent ban with a Support ticket. A Dead by Daylight ban appeal needs your Player Cloud ID from the ban pop-up, and if Easy Anti-Cheat issued the ban, Support will point you to EAC's own form.

One detection, and the account goes. Keep going after that, and your other accounts can follow.

Are Free DBD Cheats Safe?

No. Free Dead by Daylight cheats are a well-known malware lure, and they get the account banned the same way a paid one does.

Flare, a threat exposure management firm, looked at 53,896 devices infected with infostealer malware between June and August 2025. It found that 41% of the infections came from a gaming-related file.

Cheats, mod menus, aimbots and skin changers made up more than half of those gaming infections.

An infostealer goes after saved passwords, browser sessions and game logins.

In DBD that's a second problem. Behaviour publishes no exception for an account someone else used to cheat, so the ban lands on your record, and an appeal is the only way off it.

I'd treat any free download promising DBD cheats or unlocked DLC as malware until proven otherwise. The file can cost you more than the account does.

How Do You Report a Cheater in Dead by Daylight?

You report a cheater in Dead by Daylight from the endgame scoreboard, and Behaviour says the in-game report isn't optional, even when you also open a Support ticket.

• Click the thumbs icon next to the player's name on the endgame scoreboard and file the report. During the 2026 anti-cheat trial, Behaviour said the "Hacking/Exploiting" category covers everything from cheaters to hackers.
• Add detail. Behaviour asks for specifics like wallhacks, speedhacks or teleporting.
• For serious cases like cheating or hacking, open a Support ticket too, and attach a video if you have one.
• Only report matches you played in. Reports filed for a friend or a streamer get discarded.

Behaviour's team reviews in-game reports directly.

If it takes action on someone you reported, you get a pop-up in the menu, without any personal details about either player.

Report it, record it if you can, and move on to the next trial.

Where an HWID Spoofer Fits (and Where It Doesn't)

An HWID spoofer fits one situation: Behaviour has banned 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.

We change the hardware IDs your PC reports, such as the CPU, TPM, motherboard, disks, GPU, monitor and network adapter values, so a hardware-banned 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 the same way it did the first time.

Saturn is the wrong answer if:

• Only your Behaviour account is banned. A spoofer can't touch a record on Behaviour's servers.
• You lost access through Family Sharing. That follows the license holder's account, not your hardware.
• You expect it to keep a cheating account alive. The next detection bans the next account, and every later offense is permanent.
• You think the ban is a mistake. Behaviour reviews permanent bans by ticket, so appeal first.

Better you read that here than find it out after paying.

Where it does fit, Saturn covers Dead by Daylight with its EAC license, and the Dead by Daylight HWID spoofer runs from the same single loader as every other Saturn license. Your license decides which games it covers.

As of November 9, 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. Permanent mode writes one profile for good.

Where it falls short: Behaviour is watching for this.

Its ban evasion rule targets players who keep offending on other accounts, and Epic says EAC collects hardware identifiers specifically to prevent ban evasion.

Every license comes with a 24-hour free trial, no card needed, only an email address for the key.

Dead by Daylight Cheats FAQ

Can you get banned for cheating in Dead by Daylight?

Yes. Behaviour lists third-party software that gives an unfair advantage as a permanent ban offense, so a cheating ban in Dead by Daylight is permanent from the first offense. Any earlier permanent ban, even on another account, makes every later offense permanent too.

Is it possible to cheat in Dead by Daylight?

Cheats for Dead by Daylight exist, and Behaviour itself asks players to report wallhacks, speedhacks and teleporting. Easy Anti-Cheat, server-side checks and manual reviews of player reports are there to catch them, and Behaviour says it bans detected cheaters permanently.

Are there cheat codes for Dead by Daylight?

Behaviour publishes redeem codes, not cheat codes. Official codes are entered in the in-game Store, under the Featured tab, with the Redeem button, and they unlock in-game items. Nothing in Behaviour's documents describes a code that changes gameplay.

Does Dead by Daylight still use Easy Anti-Cheat?

Yes. As of November 9, 2026, Dead by Daylight's Steam page lists Easy Anti-Cheat as its kernel-level anti-cheat. Behaviour tested Denuvo Anti-Cheat on Steam from September 2 to September 15, 2026, then removed it, and said more trials could follow.

Can you get banned for using a DBD unlocker?

Yes. Behaviour permanently bans accounts that acquire cosmetics outside official Dead by Daylight channels, and in May 2026 it ran a ban wave against accounts that had obtained content from unauthorized sources. Behaviour doesn't use the word "unlocker," but that's the content an unlocker hands out.

Does an HWID spoofer hide Dead by Daylight cheats?

No. An HWID spoofer changes the hardware IDs a PC reports and does nothing to hide cheat software from Easy Anti-Cheat or Behaviour's reviewers. An account running a cheat gets caught the same way, spoofer or not.

Final Thoughts

Dead by Daylight cheats come in six types, from aura hacks and Killer aimbots to speed hacks and unlockers, and Behaviour puts every one of them on its permanent ban list.

My advice is short.

If you're thinking about running one, I've read Behaviour's own rules, and they say the first ban is permanent and every ban after it is too. If a cheater wrecked your trial, report it from the scoreboard, add a clip, and let Behaviour's team do its job.

Checked by Gabri on November 9, 2026, except where a date is given. Sources: Behaviour's support articles Game Bans (dated January 21, 2026), How to report a player, Invalid report reasons, What happens to players that I have reported, I need to contact Support, How do I redeem a code, I lost access to my DLC, Denuvo Anti-Cheat FAQ, EAC Launch Error July 2026 and Game Security Violation Detected; Behaviour's Steam posts of July 16, August 26, September 2 and September 15, 2026; Behaviour's forum post "Update on Cheating" (posted September 22, 2022); Behaviour's X post of May 6, 2026 and Automaton's report on it (read October 9, 2026); Behaviour's Terms of Use (read October 9, 2026); the Dead by Daylight Steam store page; Epic's Easy Anti-Cheat player FAQ; and Flare's November 2025 research (read October 12, 2026). UNVERIFIED: how often Behaviour bans hardware, today's ban numbers, and whether more anti-cheat trials will run.